May's Crush: Final Frontier - Denouement
by MagmarFire
Summary: The continuation of May's Crush: Final Frontier by PikamasterADV, so read that first! After a tumultuous vacation, Ash and May find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy between Team Rocket and the Frontier Brains? How can they get out of this one?
1. 37: Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow! Part 2

**Hoo, boy, what have I gotten myself into...? I probably have some explaining to do before we begin.**

 **You all remember _May's Crush_ and its sequel _Final Frontier_ from...oh, God, a decade ago, right? Yeah, let's not think about how much time has passed and instead think about how much good these stories did for the Advanceshipping community. Because they did absolutely inspire most of us to write something for it, I'm sure. I know it did for me.**

 **But after a while, _Final Frontier_ just stopped updating. Perhaps PikamasterADV had other plans, or maybe life just got in the way, or maybe he didn't think it was worth finishing after all. It's rather common for many stories, of course, but I couldn't just let this particular one end like this, not when it affected the community so profoundly-and me personally, in late high school.**

 **So what's a grown adult with a little determination and perhaps a bit too much free time after the Twitch** **Pokémon Marathon to do? Why, reread both stories, take notes, make ending predictions, and then finish the dang thing, of course! And what you have just clicked is the fruit of my attempt.**

 **Fair warning: This very well may not be the outcome that the original author intended, so I can only imagine that this will diverge in some way from his original vision. That said, most of what I have planned is stuff that can be supported through the material that he had already written, so it won't be a complete asspull. I also think that he's laid a very good foundation to finish the story in a satisfying way, so I hope you find my interpretation of the ending on par.**

 **Without further ado, enjoy! (But make sure you're familiar with both _May's Crush_ and _Final Frontier_ beforehand, because there be spoilers ahead for those who haven't read it!)**

* * *

The gravity of that night thus far weighed heavily on Ash's heart as he re-entered the mysterious man's office once more. His mind raced with the same thoughts over and over again, and no matter how many times he revisited them, he could never completely wrap his head around it all.

The Team Rocket trio, whom he had not long ago consigned them to death, had miraculously survived Charizard's attack (again), and not only that, but they had also been teaming up with the friends he had been separated from for about a week. On top of that, Anabel had confessed her love to him, and it turned out that Scott wasn't the murderous moneygrubber he had been programmed to accept. Or so he claimed.

And most importantly...they were _alive_. His Pokémon, his best friend Pikachu, and the girl he loved—none of them had died after all.

In the course of a single night, his emotional range went from pure hatred and rage, to fear, to mirth, to happiness, to sorrow, to rage again, and then to understanding. Sliding across the entire spectrum of human emotion in only a few minutes' time was a peculiar sensation that he was not used to, but it was, he had to admit, a nice change of pace from the monotonous despair he had been feeling for days at a time.

That sensation had given him pause in his instinct to kill. Doubt welled up in him. He had questions that needed answers. And so, his clouded heart led him back to the Battle Fortress once more, to interrogate the man who had helped him seek revenge.

After dismounting his trusty Charizard and leaving him to kill time in the basement, he made his way to the main elevator and retraced his steps back to Evergreen's office. The path was simple enough, and it helped that the Fortress's layout was painfully rudimentary, each floor having a straightforward set of doorways, all of them clearly marked—the one claimed by Evergreen being the only one with a double door set.

The doors slid open easily, slamming when they hit the doorstops, and he stepped inside to greet a dimly-lit desk and the back of a large leather swivel chair.

"Evergreen, I'm back."

The chair spun to face him, and sitting in it was a towering, chiseled man comfortably leaning into his palm. His dark hair blended in with the shadows, tempting Ash to doubt whether or not he even had hair to begin with—but that he did, slicked with an expensive gel that sometimes was the only glimmer of light in the poorly-lit room.

"Ah, Ash," the man said, his lips curled into a slight frown. "You're back earlier than I expected. Why hasn't Anabel returned with you?"

"She had to stay behind. We found Scott's hideout. It was on Six Island, like you told us."

Evergreen's frown turned into a warm smile. "Good. And?"

"It's burned to ashes. Let's say he won't ruin people's lives ever again."

The older man laughed and got out of his chair. "Very good! Very good, indeed. You've done the right thing. Now no one else will have to suffer your kind of loss at his hand." He walked up to the tattered and singed Champion and placed a firm grip of assurance on his shoulder. "It's cathartic, isn't it, to see justice done?"

It wasn't. Not just because he thought it was overkill in retrospect, but also because May was actually alive. The warmth of her skin, the scent of her hair, the softness of her clothes, it was all real. There was no justice to serve—just an aborted assassination attempt and an unnecessary arson. Finding himself unable to own up, however, he silently nodded.

Evergreen ceased his firm grip on Ash's shoulder and practically skipped back to his chair, an apparent spring in his step that the Pallet Trainer had never had the opportunity to witness. It made him uncomfortable to see any semblance of the man's professionalism fall away like a silk veil, but just as soon as he landed into the plush leather seat, the giddy schoolboy image had dissipated. Ash's discomfort still remained.

"You made shorter work of Scott than I anticipated, so I think you deserve a long-awaited night of rest. Wouldn't you agree?"

Ash's stomach rumbled loudly, as was routine after what seemed like every fifteen-minute interval, and he missed having clean clothes and a warm shower—but he knew those luxuries would have to wait. "Sure," he began, "but before I turn in for the night, there's something that's been bothering me."

Ice jingled in Evergreen's glass as it pounded the mahogany coaster on his desk, its contents otherwise consumed completely. "Still having second thoughts about being judge, jury, and executioner?" he asked the tattered lad standing across from him. "Don't doubt yourself about that. It had to be done."

Ash's eyes narrowed. "Did it, though?"

Evergreen looked nonplussed, his eyes narrowing in kind. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you were so sure that May and Pikachu were dead…"

Evergreen chuckled. "Surely you must be sleep deprived. You haven't forgotten the video already, have you? Those members of Team Rocket fired that rocket launcher and blew your beloved to smithereens!"

"But...did they, really?"

Evergreen's frown returned, his chuckle replaced by agitation. "Of course they did!" he answered with his voice raised far beyond what was really necessary in such close quarters. "You saw how they were unable to capture a simple Pikachu! Is it that hard to believe they couldn't handle that bazooka, either?"

And then it hit him. Ash knew something sounded fishy as soon as he heard the other side of the story, and now, like an interrogator grilling a suspect under a hot lamp, he raised his own voice to counter. "How did you know they were just trying to capture Pikachu? That video had no sound!"

That moment he saw that video was, after all, forever burned into Ash's mind, and he revisited it each and every day he trained from then on. It was the perfect fuel for his motivation—and there was no way he'd misremember a detail of a video that horrifying. A supposed outsider would have seen Jessie in the video attempt to grab May first and reasonably assumed the trio was attempting to kidnap them all. But singling out a simple Pikachu as the sole target?

Evergreen was silent, unless one were to count the stunned sputtering of one who just realized he had made a grave slip of the tongue. His eye twitched, and his mouth hung open as though his jaw were locked in place. And then, Ash cracked a genuine grin for what felt like the first time in weeks. He _got_ him.

"I saw May just now, and Pikachu, too. They're still alive."

Evergreen growled. "Impossible. How could anyone have survived an attack like that!?"

"If you don't believe me," Ash said with a smile, "then how do you explain this?" With a swift sleight of hand, he took all of the Poké Balls around his belt and released his party, five flashes of light brightening up the dank ambiance for a brief moment. The partners that he had once thought he lost in the explosion stood before the two, restraining themselves to celebrate their master's return to instead keep a close eye on the man cloaked in the shadows.

Evergreen's face said it all: Shock, dumbfoundedness, and—most of all—complete silence. Had Ash not known any better, he would have assumed that the man had choked on a piece of fruit and was paralyzed from fear.

"It's like you said," Ash continued. "May did have my Pokémon with her. And if she really were killed, then they would've been dead with her. But my Pokémon are alive and well right in front of you."

Evergreen closed his eyes, pensive. His growling from before turned into a low hum, and he rubbed his chin with one of his free hands. "So not only did you off the one who would surely take another life without your intervention, you discovered that everyone most important to you had survived the attack after all? What jubilation! I toast to your good fortune, sir."

He leaned forward and refilled his glass with a transparent, brownish liquid from a pitcher on his desk and then raised it, uttering a _sláinte_ before taking a sip. "I mean, this is cause for celebration, no? Scott's dead, and you have your loved one back, and your Pokémon, to boot. What more could you ask for?"

Ash took a step forward, taking care to not accidentally step on Totodile's tail. "Well, I never actually said I killed Scott."

Evergreen spit his drink on the floor and violently swiped away the excess dribble from his chin. " _What!?_ Scott's still alive!?"

"And that's not all," Ash continued. "I heard what he and my friends had to say, and what they said completely contradicts everything that you've told me."

Evergreen's eyes narrowed into a glare. "Oh? What did you hear?"

Where to begin! Ash regaled him at length about how he learned that the Team Rocket trio had apparently been fired conveniently _after_ he had blasted them off that final time; that May, Scott, and even Greta had unilaterally condemned what he was trying to accomplish; and that Greta accused his "Boss" of being "the real Rocket."

With all of Ash's report laid bare, the older man said nothing, or at least nothing substantial. He couldn't tell if he had simply no idea how to rebut what he said or if he was fighting every urge to strangle him to death. Regardless of what it was, however, nary a word passed his lips in objection, and that was about all Ash felt fit to hear.

"Evergreen," Ash pressed, his volume back to a reasonable level but as adamant as before, "just who are you, really?"

And then...laughter. A loud, guttural uproar of laughter blasted into the room, amplified by dark metal walls and the relative lack of decor. Evergreen's eyes were clamped shut, his shoulders were heaving, and Ash could have sworn that tears were welling up in his eyes. The noise pierced everyone else through the soul, and Cyndaquil shuddered with a squeak and took a few steps back, mitigated by a quick pat of reassurance from the Big Jaw Pokémon standing next to him.

"Absurd!" Evergreen finally said after a minute and taking a few second to gasp for air. "You'd doubt your convictions so easily? How daft are you to reject your feelings based on sheer hearsay?"

Ash didn't budge. "I guess I am dense. After all, you had me going long enough to almost turn Charizard against my friends."

Evergreen tisked, unforthcoming with a rebuttal once more.

"So answer my question, Evergreen. Who are you, really?"

The two stared at each other for what felt like minutes, the only movement that each could claim being the occasional twitch in their lips and the need to deeply breathe. Ash dared not take his eyes off the man behind the desk, not even for a moment, lest any sign of weakness gave him the excuse to dismiss the boy's accusation as just a side effect of recovering from a vivid fever dream.

Finally, though, Evergreen swiveled his chair away, and a few seconds later, he stood and walked around the desk to face the Trainer and his released Pokémon. His height was staggering, intimidating all but the aloof Sceptile crossing his arms and chewing on the twig in his mouth. But Ash and his Pokémon still stood their ground, albeit taking a wider stance as though the older man could knock them all away with a single kick.

To the confusion of them all, however, he was not ready to pounce but had, instead, started clapping.

"Bravo, Ash," Evergreen said, clapping slowly a few more times before eventually putting his hands into his pants pockets. "It's clear that bluffs at this point will have little effect on you anymore."

"Wait," Ash replied, raising an eyebrow, perplexed, "are you giving up?"

"Against a Trainer of merit such as yourself, what choice do I have?" He raised his hands as though he was being read his rights during arrest. "All your Pokémon are out and battle ready, while I'm here in a corner, completely unarmed. So, I suppose you've earned the satisfaction of figuring out this little puzzle."

"So you're confessing, then? Greta was telling the truth about you?"

"Just so," Evergreen finally admitted, but instead of wearing a frown like before, he cracked a grin brimming with confidence. "So I can finally drop this little charade. I am Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket."

Just then, a memory from one of Ash's previous adventures flickered through his mind, and even more started to make sense. His jaw dropped when his mind made the connection, soon followed by an accusatory pointer finger. "I _knew_ you seemed familiar to me when I first saw you. You were the one who attacked me and my friends at Mount Quena a few years ago, weren't you?"

"Mount Quena? In Johto?" the boss asked, his face contorted with the look of bemusement. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ash then bit his tongue, remembering the promise he made to Mewtwo all those years ago. He feared Giovanni would press further or even read his mind and discern the artificial Pokémon's whereabouts, but fortunately, he apparently brushed the issue aside. And so Ash could finally exhale when the imposing man continued his monologue instead.

"But I can vouch for your friends' truthfulness, including that brat traitor Greta. Yes, I've been the benefactor for the Battle Frontier all this time. And those Team Rocket goons you dispatched so easily were under my orders."

"So that talk of you saying there being no benefactor? That Scott was the culprit to May's attempted murder? Everything was…?"

"All lies, yes. And you fell for them hook, line, and sinker."

The teenager growled in frustration but otherwise let Giovanni continue.

"Now, I assure you the explosion was far from what I had intended to happen to your beloved girlfriend, Ash. But you _so easily_ took the video and my word at face value that it was beyond trivial to recruit you for my cause and assassinate Scott. I couldn't have had an easier time if I had brainwashed you."

"But why?" Ash asked, something still not quite adding up. "What did Scott even do? You said he 'changed' and that you didn't know when he'd 'make his move' or whatever, but if that was all lies, then...why?"

"Well, I did tell the truth about one thing: We met once before, he and I. Not as friends, of course, but more like business partners. He practically crawled to me, begging for me to supply the resources he needed to get his unprofitable child fantasy off the ground."

"So the Battle Frontier isn't profitable after all, either?"

Giovanni chuckled. "Profitable? His revenue can barely cover the pens he needs for his accounting tables."

"So why go to all this effort to get him killed? What did he do to you?"

"It's simple, really. An informant of mine caught wind that he was planning to sabotage my work. So it was just a breach of contract violation that needed resolving, nothing more."

"And by 'informant,' I guess you mean Brandon, right?"

"You guess correctly. He kept me abreast of all goings-on in Kanto and the Sevii Islands where my Delibird could not, and he kept me well informed of Scott specifically. My services don't come cheap, and he requested a large loan on top of that. If I didn't make sure he was on top of repayment, then...well, that just wouldn't do, would it? Which brings me to the asking price…"

"Hiring the Frontier Brains to do your dirty work, you mean?"

"Oh, you make it sound so underhanded when you put it that way, but yes. Although I do lament Scott's hiring standards." Giovanni crossed his arms, almost as though he were pouting. "He has an eye for talent for Pokémon battling, without question, but the lot of them have absolutely horrid teamwork ethic. Some, even, like that eccentric tactician—Tucker, was it?—couldn't even procure the Ruby without making a scene and attempting to get you killed."

"So that was you, too, huh?"

"Like I said before, it was never my intention for you and your friends to come to harm. I even took the liberty of having Brandon intervene before he made everything worse."

Visions of the beams of light that had saved them on Mt. Ember earlier had returned to his memory. So that really was Brandon after all.

"I mean, sure, if...worse came to worst, we could've hidden your bodies for a while, but with Scott out and aware of what was happening, the secret wouldn't last for long. He would've reported it to the authorities, the force would've found us out, and then any hope of having a mesh of Team Rocket-owned Network Machines would have been dashed within the week."

"That's your end goal, then?" Ash asked. "That's why you had Celio's Network Machine destroyed: So you could see how it works and use the Ruby and Sapphire to build your own."

Giovanni smiled, genuinely impressed. "I must say, young man, you are impeccably on point today. Now, if I had known he would have been that much trouble, I would have never asked for that Tucker fellow to assist Anabel on that mission in the first place..." He turned to face the wall, finding the empty space in between apparently fascinating. "Speaking of Anabel...she's a special one."

Ash squinted, his suspicion growing. "What about Anabel?"

"'What about Anabel?'" Giovanni parroted, facing the younger Trainer with incredulity. "You should know by now her special gift, her ability that lets her know what people and Pokémon alike are thinking."

"Well, yeah," Ash responded, not quite sure where he was getting at with something so well known. "It's what makes her such a tough Trainer to beat."

"Mm, yes. She's a powerful one, that Anabel, but she has no ambition to speak of whatsoever. She'd rather use her ability to talk to flowers or snoop in on you while you dream and other such frivolities."

Ash flushed a deep red when that visual popped into his head. He somehow resisted the urge to cower behind his hands in the embarrassment of having his intimate dreams of May watched by someone else, but he couldn't dam the gates of his mouth pouring out strings of complete gibberish. Giovanni, on the other hand, found the boy's show of vulnerability amusing. He chuckled, prompting the other to flush such a deeper shade of red that he began to sweat profusely.

"The girl is like a termite. She would rather enjoy a simple life and submit herself to the whims of her primal urges, but she can't even fathom what sort of wonders she's capable of—were it not only for her inability to simply _step back_ a bit and observe the wonders she's made simply by living.

"But I am no termite like she is. Unlike her, I have observed her from afar and can see what she can do. And also unlike her, I _can_ fathom her power's true form, fathom what could be done when her limits are broken—and share that gift with others."

Ash gulped, afraid of where the line of discussion was going. "What do you mean?"

Giovanni smiled fiercely, and Ash's fear grew twofold. "Why don't I show you?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a rebreather device. Then, after a loud _beep_ sounded from his sleeve, clouds of mist hissed from the air vents overhead.

The grayish gas quickly filled the room, and as soon as Ash accidentally caught a whiff of it, he immediately felt his limbs begin to fail him. His eyes grew heavy, his mind blanked, and he could do little but struggle against his impending fight against gravity before hitting the ground in a heap. His Pokémon didn't fare much better, all of them toppling over and out like lights in five seconds flat.

His head gained the density of lead, and his neck felt it was going to snap from supporting its weight. His arms shaking, struggling to keep his chest from touching the floor, he could utter only a few words before even his vocal chords ceased function. "What are...you doing..."

"You'll soon see, my friend."

Ash's arms gave way, the floor victorious. It wasn't long before his vision failed him, as well, darkness completely taking over and leaving only his hearing. He could hear footsteps approaching, the sound of his Pokémon being recalled, and a murmur of something like, "Bring me six of the devices, _now_." But soon, even his hearing began to fade, and the hissing from above softened to an inaudible level. In the end, all he could manage to hear was an imaginary soothing hum lulling him to sleep.

It was just as well, he thought. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just rest his eyes a little bit…

* * *

Metallic footsteps echoed in the corridor as May and the remainder of her party made a second climb up the staircase. Greta and Anabel lagged behind for a moment to talk about this and that, but May was too focused on making sure she didn't make a false step and fall face first to really catch the gist of their short-lived conversation. Before long, all that remained was the hollow clanging of feet on metal as they climbed.

Besides that, no one uttered a word, save for Cyndi breaking the silence with a sneeze and Happiny giggling in amusement. The tension that followed thickened the air as though it were saltwater, and each successive step grew harder and harder to make. There was no snide remark from Meowth, no angry outburst from Jessie, nor even a resigned James to shrug in response to lighten the mood.

Never did May ever imagine that it would ever feel just so _empty_ without them there alongside her. A part of her even preferred them attempting to catch Pikachu again—because even then, she knew that it would only be a matter of time before she saw them again after their inevitable blastoff.

She sighed, realizing her difficulty in coming to grips with the fact that they had to make the difficult choice to leave them behind. Noticing her distress, Brock reached out from behind and gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulder. "Are you all right, May?" he asked her aloud, officially breaking the self-imposed moratorium on speech.

She briefly hummed a "yes" in reply but then regressed in laying bare her inner conflict once more, even almost laughing at herself mockingly for saying that she had actually _missed_ Team Rocket for once.

Brock laughed in agreement. "It's certainly not the same without them here, that's for sure."

May sighed again, her self-doubt resurfacing. "Brock, do you really think it'll all be okay?"

"Come on, May, of course it will. We've been in worse scraps than this. Remember that whole affair with Lucario in the Tree of Beginning?"

"Well, yeah, but...I dunno. For some reason, it just feels like the stakes are higher this time, you know?"

Brock took a moment to look behind to make sure Cyndi, Greta, and Anabel were still caught up before taking more steps up. "It is hard to shake that feeling, I agree. But everything will be all right. We'll see them again—whether we want to or not," he finished with a laugh, which May shared.

The group climbed for a few minutes before reaching the end, culminating in another large room. It was dark, with only a single light to speak of at the other end, which had to have spanned at least a hundred meters before reaching another large dark blue wall. Just like the battlefield before it, it, too, had a large metal door, securely shut.

May, being the vanguard of the group, was the first to take a step on the soft earth. As soon as her foot touched the ground, the sound of a large array of spotlights turning on filled the room and startling everyone. There was no space allocated for spectators, just like before, and instead, there was a large empty space with white markings on the ground indicating the boundaries of the field of play, as well as the designated spaces for the opposing Trainers themselves.

A loud metallic groaning sounded from the other end of the arena as the door slowly rose. May gulped loudly, bracing herself in anticipation as she saw a lone shadowy figure limp out into the light, the door closing behind her. The figure sported dark tattered pants and a yellow diamond-pattern belt, thin and tall. Its height was aggrandized by a pair of scuffed, purple heels. The form was alluring, sporting a midriff and long yet seemingly-unkempt black hair. The figure's face was twisted in rage and pain, its teeth clenched and hands balled into fists as it stomped over to the designated space across from them.

May gasped when she recognized it, and Brock soon followed with a growl filled with betrayal and pain of his own.

"Lucy, it's you…"

A tear rolled down Lucy's face when she locked onto Brock's eyes, her face relaxing a bit. "Brock...you have returned."

May stepped forward. "What are you doing here? The last time we saw you, you—"

"Got blasted off like your Team Rocket minions?" Lucy interrupted scornfully. "You're not dreaming; I lived. Surely _you_ of all people know how likely surviving a massive explosion is, yeah?" May raised her finger to object but immediately bit her tongue when she realized that the older woman kind of had a point...

"Oish!" Greta interjected, standing root at May's side. "Don't you think you've done enough? What do you think you're doing standing there?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm your next opponent in this little gauntlet."

May stared at the woman, stunned at her determination. "In this state!? You can barely walk!"

"Your concern is appreciated," Lucy growled, "but my Pokémon are all I need. Watch." She tossed a Poké Ball forward, a bright flash of light revealing her Milotic—still bruised and scorched from their last encounter but still formidable, nevertheless. Like her Trainer, she glared at her opposition with the same crazed expression. May shuddered and closed her eyes in fear for a few moments before steeling herself again.

"So, which among you will offer yourself as a sacrifice to the Pike Queen?" She faced Greta and Anabel and pointed. "Why not you traitors?"

Done with fighting off accusations, Greta rolled up her sleeves and stomped her foot aggressively. "Yeah, yeah, we'll bash your heads in, if that's what you want! _Bring it!_ "

That was when Brock stepped up to her and held her back with a firm grip. "No. I'll do it. I'll face Lucy again."

All Brains within earshot gaped at him, and his suggestion did also elicit quite a negative reaction from the others, and May in particular. "Not you, Brock!" she cried. "It was hard enough leaving Team Rocket behind, but now I have to leave my big brother behind, too!?"

Pikachu joined to support May, jumping on her shoulder in the loudest coherent objection he could make.

"I have to agree with May on this one!" said Greta, yanking her hand away from Brock's grip. "Maybe I'm just biased and _really_ just want to give her what for by myself, but that's insane."

Brock's solemn, firm expression remained. "Maybe so, under different circumstances," he replied, "but I don't know this place like you guys do, so May will need all the brainpower she can get to navigate it. And besides…" His tough look then melted into a wry smile. "Heh, we're only as strong as our weakest link in this place, and let's be honest here. I'm no Frontier Brain."

"But—!"

Brock raised his hand to silence the Petalburg girl. "If you want to reach Ash, you'll need backup. And I mean _strong_ backup. You understand, right?"

She cursed under her breath, fighting back tears once more. She knew he was right, but she would never admit it. In the Battle Fortress, it was the optimal strategy: The doors didn't discriminate based on how strong or weak the challengers were. If a battle was being fought, be it a competition or a curbstomp, they would open without hesitation. So it only made logical sense to weed out the weakest first and leave the strongest for the final battle.

"Don't worry, May. I'll be fine, I promise. Given how she looks, I think I could really give her a run for her money, even."

May didn't have the will to argue with such conviction, not when she had to muster all the strength she could just to prevent herself from crying and to look brave for everyone. Judging by how the others were taking it, it didn't look like Anabel and Greta were going to argue much more against it, either. Greta still scowled, but she agreed with Brock's calculus and stepped away to give the former Pewter City Gym Leader some space.

He faced her, ignoring the irrational pitter-patter of his heart racing at the sight of his opponent. Lucy, on the other hand, had less restraint and had instead resorted to avoiding eye contact completely.

"Y-You're a horrible man, forcing me to fight you again. Do you enjoy watching me suffer!?"

Brock frowned. "You made the choice to suffer on your own. I have nothing more to say to you." He reached for his belt and chucked a Poké Ball of his own. "Go for it, Steelix!" There was another flash of light, and a large iron snake materialized in front of them, a metallic roar filling the vast stadium. "Use Dig!"

Dirt and stones were expelled into the air as Steelix obediently dove into the soil. Before he could make a second command, though, he turned to May. "Now go! The door's opening!"

Sure enough, a rumble besides the tremors caused by Steelix's attack could be felt coming from the other end of the room. The door slowly rose, and after a few seconds, it was completely open. And that was when May knew the countdown had begun.

Greta and Anabel had already made a beeline for the exit and were halfway across the field before May realized she had been paralyzed from guilt. She knew she had to move quickly before the doors closed permanently, but her legs wouldn't budge, and she couldn't even look away from the battle unfolding.

"Milotic, wait for it to resurface, and then use Water Pulse!"

The epicenter of quakes from Steelix moved closer and closer to the Tender Pokémon until it finally shot out from the ground, barely grazing it. Then, as commanded, Milotic charged up a wave of water and shot it out at the vulnerable snake. It was significantly less lucky than its aquatic counterpart, as it took the shot head-on.

Another roar filled the stadium—this time, from pain. May flinched at the sight, and yet she still just _couldn't look away_. That is, until she felt her hand jerk away and pulled her to the side. The impulse was enough to get her to look, and she found that it was Anabel, of all people, who ran back to fetch her.

She snapped out of her trance and followed the Brain as fast as her legs could carry her—until she realized something.

"W-wait! Not yet!" She looked behind her to find Cyndi standing next to Brock. "Cyndi, come on! We need to go!"

The blue-haired girl shook her head furiously. "No way! I want to see him kick this bitch's ass after what she did to me in that cave!" Happiny chirped in agreement.

May didn't have a chance to voice a response before she felt her hand get yanked again. Instead, all she could do was look back and scream, "You two better be careful, you got that!?"

A few seconds later, May and Anabel had caught up with Greta and bolted over the threshold of the door. May looked behind her again to get one last look at Brock and Cyndi before she and they were separated. The young girl was very into watching the battle play out, but both she and Brock did manage to find a quick moment to watch the trio exit the room and sadly wave them off.

May raised her hand to wave them goodbye in turn, but then the door immediately slammed downward, completely cutting them off from the room behind them. None of them could hear any sound or feel any shockwaves from the fiercely-fighting Pokémon. It was almost as though they found themselves in a different world, without any means of contact whatsoever with the outside realm.

And, once more, May felt an overwhelming rush of loneliness. She fell to her knees and let a couple of tears flow, trying her best not to sob. Pikachu cooed in her ear to soothe her, which helped a little bit, but her guilt still remained unassuaged.

"Not again…" she whispered to no one in particular. "I still can't believe they'd make us do this to each other."

"It is what it is," Greta huffed, crossing her arms. "It's awful, but it's the only way forward."

Anabel offered her hand to May to lift her up, which she accepted hesitantly. While she felt she could trust the other two girls there with her, she still had to admit that she wasn't as comfortable with them as she was with the others. It was probably to be expected, given that she traveled with Brock and got hounded by Team Rocket for literal years before. With Anabel and Greta, on the other hand...well, the black eye on the latter's face spoke for itself.

The feeling of being trapped in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people weighed hard on her mind, making an especially significant tribulation even more trying.

The three waited a few moments for their eyes to adjust to the dim lighting before silently climbing the third staircase that stood in their way. The only thing staving off May's claustrophobia was the promise that she would see her friends again and the determination that she would save the boy she loved. It was a thin thread that anchored her, but it tugged her along and lifted her lead-plated feet all the same.

And so she and the others continued to climb—with both hope of what was to come, and also dread of what they still had to face.

* * *

 **And that's that for Chapter 37. What do you think so far?** **This chapter was originally going to be longer, but I didn't want this to balloon into an epic so fast.**

 **So, then, what's next? Well, since this chapter is done, I should probably get started on the next one. I don't expect the next one to be quite as long, but with me...you never really know.**

 **As for an update schedule, though? That's tricky. Expecting a strict estimate from a full-time software engineer is kind of like expecting a cat to be able to roll over on command. That's not even mentioning the fact that _Super Smash Bros. Ultimate_ comes out this Friday. Helix help me.**

 **But I will try to make the next update as timely as possible! If I'm on the ball? Maybe two weeks. So let's try that.**

 **Anyway, I better get back to procrastin-I mean writing. Until next time, as PikamasterADV would say, get Poké** **mon!** **...No, seriously, get** **Pokémon. It's Community Weekend in** **_Pokémon Go_ , and there are _Shinies for_ _days!_**


	2. 38: Throwing Down the Gauntlet!

**And here we are once more! Thanks much to everyone who's giving this continuation a chance. Your kind words are much appreciated!**

 **Now, without further ado, let's continue to Chapter 38. And no _,_** **I most certainly was _not_ distracted by _Super Smash Bros. Ultimate_ while writing this, no worries!**

* * *

It had been a few minutes since the door closed behind them, and it was only a couple since they resumed their climb after the initial blindness from the bright lights had faded. None of the girls uttered a word to each other, and the anticipation of the next opponent pressurized the air so much it made the awkward tension between them even worse.

May still was having difficulty gathering up the courage to break the silence. The extreme guilt she felt for unloading all those sucker punches onto Greta over a day before had refused to leave her, and revisiting that memory and the thought of apologizing for it out of the blue brought her close to hyperventilating more than once. Pikachu, sensing the distress from his caretaker, tried to calm her down however he could, although there was admittedly little he could really do in such an uninviting place.

Greta, on the other hand, had more or less moved on. She had way worse beatings than that while training, she recalled. She could still feel the soreness, and she was pretty sure one of May's punches had given her a concussion, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. Yet, for some reason, she could feel the awkward energy coming from her troubled form, and that made her more than a little uncomfortable herself.

Though, unlike May, who was closer to perhaps being on the verge of a panic attack, she herself was more antsy. She growled, no longer able to stay quiet, and vented to disperse the choking, unpleasant air. "Aaaaagh, whose idea was it to make a stupid place like this, anyway!?" Her booming voice echoed hollowly up the staircase, which made it clear that they still had quite a ways to go.

"It wasn't Scott's idea," Anabel answered matter-of-factly. Her voice had no trace of any of the tension that had plagued the other two, even despite the fact that she was very easily able to sense their feelings directly. "My guess is that it was Evergreen who had masterminded the Battle Fortress's design."

"You mean he spent all this money on this huge, advanced building with motion sensors and tech that knows when Pokémon are battling, yet he was too cheap to install a freakin' _elevator_?" Greta retorted in a huff. After a second, though, she sighed in resignation, her stress relieved for the moment. "I mean, I guess it's a good cardio workout and all, but still…"

The Brains' banter had continued like this for a while, but it was only the pair who had the courage to speak. There were times May had felt a desire to weigh in and be at least somewhat sociable, granted, but cold feet stilled her tongue. A voice in the back of her head taunted her, all but convincing her that she had no right to fraternize with those she had been antagonistic towards so recently. So, after a few minutes of watching them quip back and forth and enjoy each other's company, she gave up trying.

Anabel broke eye contact with Greta for a moment to notice that May _had_ been unusually quiet for the past few minutes, however. "May, are you all right?" she said, her eyes softening in concern.

The girl in green broke out of her spell and panickedly shook her hands. "O-Of course! Just peachy!"

Anabel frowned disapprovingly. "You know I can tell what you're feeling, right?"

The sudden realization made her stumble forward, just barely catching herself with the handrail. Pikachu also barely caught onto her shoulder in time and averted what would have been a painful spill onto the cold metal steps. "Did you just read my mind without my permission!?" she asked in a flustered, exasperated tone and clutching her heart.

"Oh, no," Anabel responded with a laugh. "Your reaction just now made it obvious."

May sighed, not even bothering to put up the façade anymore. Anabel continued to giggle at May's expense and playfully patted her on the back in whatever camaraderie she could display, given the circumstances. However, when May didn't reciprocate, she stopped and lowered her hand hesitantly. "You're not okay, are you?"

She shook her head. She went on to lay bare her feelings to the other two, her voice raspy and slow. Her guilt welled up when she explained her actions from before and when she admitted she still wasn't completely at ease in their presence.

"So you don't trust us?" Greta asked her—not really in a negative or shocked tone or anything that signaled offense.

May hesitated for a moment before answering. Deep down, she still had some doubts, and yet she answered in the negative. Perhaps it was against her best judgment, knowing how many times they've seemingly gone through a revolving door of allying and betraying her, not to mention how quickly. Nevertheless, she saw their most recent actions and intentions, and so her moral fiber wouldn't allow her to turn her back on them, either.

"I can't really blame you if you didn't, honestly," said Greta pensively. "We did do some pretty bad stuff to Ash, after all. Plus, there was the whole helping-Team-Rocket-take-over-the-Sevii-Islands thing…"

"You know, Greta," Anabel interjected with a smile, "you've been strangely introspective and thoughtful of other people's feelings in the past couple days, haven't you?"

The blonde blushed and crossed her arms with a frown. "Oh, cork it, Annie."

The pair laughed for a couple seconds, and even May couldn't help but chip in a giggle or two their way, as well.

"So…" May started, still having difficulties putting an actual word in edgewise. "Are we cool?"

The others nodded with smiles of their own, and so she took a deep breath and let out some of the emotional exhaustion out of her lungs. Her breath still ran fast from the constant climbing, but she was more at peace, for now. At least for a moment, she could at last feel a small weight lift from her shoulders.

Of course, it was also, literally, a small weight: With a sudden twitch of his ears, Pikachu had jumped off May's shoulder and run ahead up the stairs. May, surprised, called his name, but as was typical of the electric mouse, he didn't stop for anyone. Then it was clear to her.

They were there.

The doorway leading to the next room itself was identical to every other one they'd encountered; it was just a rectangular opening and had nothing particularly special or eyecatching about it. Beyond that was a battlefield also practically indistinguishable from the last two. It was a style of design that had, at that point, grown stale and almost sterile and devoid of any care or attention to detail. It was a by-the-books, default, neutral field—utterly boring to anyone without a trained appreciation for the art of battling itself.

Perhaps it was for the best, then, that none of the stadiums were equipped with any spectator seating that gave people a false impression, May thought to herself dryly.

The group followed Pikachu down the field until he suddenly braked. Dust settled behind him as he slid to a halt, his cheeks angrily sparking with electricity. Up ahead, another light illuminating the opposite door—May's goal—had caught their eye, as well as a couple more shadowy figures standing in the opposing Trainer space.

Another loud noise nearly startled May out of her skin as the stadium lights turned on, but her feet somehow managed to disobey the rest of her body's instinct to dash back through the door she came from. She couldn't run, not when she was so close to the end. And so the next opponents' forms were revealed to her without delay in the white light.

It was Pyramid King Brandon and Dome Ace Tucker.

Pikachu was undeterred from the sudden change in lighting and hardly even seemed to notice the girls that walked up and stood at his side. He clawed at the loose soil beneath their feet, threatening to pounce at the slightest twitch of movement. Neither Tucker nor Brandon took the sabre rattling as any real threat, however, and simply ignored the yellow mouse.

"So, you've finally arrived," Tucker called out to the girls. "I, personally, was expecting you here sooner, but far be it for me to complain about the extra prep time."

May and Anabel were especially surprised to, once again, see Tucker face off against them. Sure, he had a few scratches and bumps on his face here and there from their last scuffle, but his attire was as pristine and flashy as it always was. Besides those, he was clearly in a better condition physically and mentally than the Pike Queen before them.

The only one among them who didn't have any visibly shocked reaction was Greta, who had instead crossed her arms and growled. "You don't know when to quit, do you?" she grumbled, her voice dripping with acid.

Tucker laughed in a shrill voice. "Upset that you didn't expect me to take advantage of your mercy back at the Dotted Hole? This is war, sweetheart."

" _War_?" Greta snapped back, the frustration in her voice made manifest. "It's _perfidy_ , that's what it is!"

Tucker, unrepentant at angering the other Brain so, simply raised his hands halfheartedly. "Call it whatever you want. Doesn't change the fact that they're just the words of someone too stubborn to admit she found herself outstrategized."

May speechlessly gaped at the golden-haired Brain. She vividly recalled Greta quickly apprehending him with a swift kick to the feet and giving the rest of them an opportunity to pass through. It was not only expertly done, but it was also a pleasant surprise; she had doubt that the Arena Tycoon would have even wanted to ally herself with her and her friends after everything that had happened prior. Yet, she still did it, and since then, despite still feeling discomfort around her, May could never seriously question her allegiances.

However, even this she found a little odd. Tucker _was_ nowhere to be seen after Greta had rescued the group from the cave in, that much she remembered, and now that she thought about it, she never did hear her mention what she did with him… What really happened back there?

Greta clenched her fists so hard that May was afraid that they would bleed, and fire erupted from her eyes. May, hoping to at least distract her from charging up to the man and decking him herself, lightly put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Greta? What's he talking about?"

Her rage had evaporated, if only for a moment. She took a deep breath and stared at her feet, still glaring. "I kinda let him go after he promised he'd return to Kanto." Before anyone had a chance to respond, her palm quickly flew toward her head, and a loud _smack_ echoed in the stadium. "Yeah, I'm an idiot, I know! But I couldn't just _kill_ him, so I thought maybe I could convince him. And then that earthquake happened, and you guys were trapped inside, and I had no time to hold him to the deal, so I had to drop him and go off to help you, and _AAAGH, it's so frustrating!_ "

Her rage had returned; she grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled, hard. Anabel intervened as quickly as she could, constricting her arms with a tight hug to keep her hands from claiming more strands than they already had. "Greta, it'll be okay!" she assured her. "I know I wasn't there, but I know you did the best you could. Just please calm down!"

The gambit seemed to have worked, at least from May's point of view. Greta loosened her grip on her hair and let her arms rest in Anabel's embrace. Her face, while still glaring, had softened slightly and grew such a nice shade of red that she desperately hoped the lavender-haired girl wouldn't notice. Whether she actually did or not was anyone's guess, and it didn't much matter when Tucker opened his mouth to lob another taunt her way.

"Perhaps it's too much to expect the one who hands out _Guts Symbols_ to depend on anything but her gut. You'd do some good to get that muscle in your head some stretching, you know."

Greta struggled against Anabel's grip with a renewed vigor, her rage reflaring in a blaze. Anabel struggled harder, though, and somehow managed to keep her from breaking free and starting an impromptu brawl. After a few seconds of fruitless squirming, she relaxed her muscles once more—before looking up to face the Dome Ace and spitting, " _You're despicable._ "

To this Tucker simply shrugged. "Well, what are you gonna do about it, hm? Are you going to throw a tantrum, or do you want to settle this _as adults_?"

Greta, growling loudly, freed her hand from Anabel's grip and reached for her belt. She grabbed one of her Poke Balls and let it fly free. "You're up, Medicham!" she bellowed. A beam of light flashed from the flying ball and revealed the red-and-gray form of her Meditate Pokémon, who, sensing from its Trainer the insatiable desire to inflict agony, took a focused stance in opposition to the two men standing before them.

"So the latter, then?" Tucker replied with a devilish grin. "Now you're speaking my language!" He tossed a ball of his own into the ring, and in another flash of light, a large, radiant canine appeared and faced Greta's Medicham head-on, snarling.

Anabel let go when she was sure that Greta wasn't going to jump in and join the melee herself. It was probably for the best, too, as her relatively-undeveloped arms were holding the grip for so long that she feared they'd have snapped.

While massaging her wrists, she glanced over to the other side of the field and realized that Brandon had not said a word since they reached that floor. His face had been locked into the perennial scowl that more-or-less defined him, but nothing in his emotions or body language indicated that he was even all that interested in fighting to begin with. Instead, he had his arms crossed and glaring eyes closed, almost as though he had been listening to music in his ear the entire time.

"Brandon," Anabel called, which immediately startled the Pyramid King. "So what are you doing here? Do you intend to let everyone know what Evergreen put you up to?"

It didn't take long for him to, quite predictably, respond with, " _Noooooooooo!_ " Even so, the sound was like nails on a chalkboard, and it took all her might to keep herself from cringing. Greta had less restraint, rolling her eyes and muttering irritably to herself. ("Oish, could you maybe chew gum instead of the scenery for once in your life?")

"There's little need for discussion, and little time. Evergreen's orders were to put the traitors in line after they arrived, and I dragged along the lowest-ranked mook I could get my hands on to help out."

Tucker's eye twitched. "Don't think me as just mere help!" he grumbled angrily.

Brandon's patience had worn thin. "Bite your tongue," he lashed, with such a threatening aura emanating from him that he might as well have silently appended, _or else._ Tucker got the ultimatum loud and clear, albeit not without a lack of protest. He turned away from his partner, huffing and tapping his foot in annoyance—but besides that, he didn't dare utter another word.

Then May, who had herself been unusually silent, decided to speak up. Curious, she asked Brandon in the firmest voice she could despite her fear and nerves, "Tell us. What did have you been doing for this 'Evergreen'?"

"None of your business."

Well, so much for that, she thought to herself. Whether he was unwilling to divulge due to orders or simply because he didn't want to, she couldn't tell. But even so, why? There was nothing he would be able to withhold from the public for long, what with the inevitability of the Brains' disappearance and Team Rocket's actions in the Sevii Islands becoming common knowledge, so why the reticence then and there?

May took the time before the sparks would start flying to ponder it, but she couldn't divine much. Maybe it was like Lucy; perhaps he wanted to keep it secret because he felt like it _had to be_ kept secret. It was easy to see why for the former; she wanted to preserve her reputation, and at any cost. However, the latter didn't seem to care much for reputation, only archaeology and ruins. So what could it have been?

By then, it was clear that Brandon would not be the one to play the town herald. If she wanted to get to the bottom of everything, "Evergreen" was the only person who could provide answers—and so May's sights were set for the door at the opposite end of the room.

Anabel sensed May's intent to book it past everyone and climb the next staircase, and put her hand on her shoulder in support. "Go," she whispered in her ear. "This is the last floor before you reach the top. You'll see Ash again soon, I promise. Greta and I will make sure your path to the door is clear, but after that, you'll be on your own, I'm afraid."

May nodded, understanding the situation all too well; she knew that, like all the other floors before them, she would have to leave them behind. This time, though, there was nothing holding her back. Mouthing a silent, "Thank you," she took off with all the speed her legs could handle, sprinting the fastest she'd ever have in her life. Pikachu, noting that his caretaker was still defenseless, broke his glare directed at the male Brains and followed closely behind her.

Unfortunately, but probably expectedly, the sudden movement prompted Brandon and Tucker's attention to immediately shift to the girl. Tucker, enraged, ordered his Arcanine to attack her with a Flamethrower.

Brandon followed suit: "Regice, I need your assistance!" May could see light flash behind her and the shrill sound of one of the legendary titans materializing—but even so, she kept running, even as Arcanine began inhaling for its attack.

"Regice, stop her in her tracks with Ice Beam!"

May shivered, knowing that any second, she would be immolated and then frozen in short order. Her breath quickened, her heartbeat got faster, sweat was dripping from her forehead, and visions of her past flicked in and out of existence. So she ran faster.

Soon, however, she panicked when she noticed the door still was not opening. Before long, she would have nowhere left to run, and she would be chased relentlessly until she succumbed to exhaustion...or worse. But she kept running anyway.

Eventually, she did reach the door, which was still closed tight and refused to budge. She banged her fists on the cold steel, crying in frustration when nothing happened. In the corner of her eye, she could see that the light before had not dissipated, and she could feel the simultaneous heat and cold headed straight for her back.

 _It's official_ , she thought. _I'm doomed._

She closed her eyes, expecting the blast of fire and ice to hit her any second. It was so hot and so cold… She would burn alive, and her well-done corpse would be preserved in an icy morgue for eternity. She clenched her teeth and hoped that it would at least be painless…

Except nothing happened. The heat and cold mix equalized to room temperature rather quickly, and no attack ever came. She opened her eyes and built the courage to look behind her. When she did, she was relieved to see that a wall of light had been erected between her and her attackers. Farther off in the distance, she saw Anabel's Espeon standing roughly where she was just a few moments earlier.

It didn't take much for May to put two and two together.

Satisfied with the quick interception with Light Screen, Anabel glared at the two men standing opposite her and Greta. "I can't believe you!" she shouted. "Attacking an unarmed challenger directly? Are those the orders Evergreen told you to follow!?"

"What, do you expect us to let her go and spill the beans on everything when she finds out about what we've been doing?" Tucker retorted.

"Tucker's right, for once," Brandon sneered, to which Tucker scoffed and rolled his eyes. "We're in damage control mode right now, and that means filling in any crack from where leaks can happen. To put it bluntly, she's seen too much. You want the Battle Frontier to survive this, don't you?"

"Not if it gives you the mandate to attack people without provocation or warning! There are rules to follow, you know!"

"Rules?" Brandon asked with a scoff. "Have you ever stopped to wonder why the Battle Fortress was designed the way it was in the first place? Do you think it was just to provide a simple gimmick to keep things fresh and interesting and exciting for the crowds and give a challenge to only the best?"

He shook his head in disdain when all he got from both girl Brains was blank stares. "No. There's one reason why someone would be possessed to architect something so twisted, and one reason only: So that no one can possibly win."

May, who had just started coming down from her adrenaline high and near-death experience, had difficulty following. Fortunately, Anabel took initiative to probe further, as though she had difficulty processing it herself. "What do you mean? Are you saying that the only reason the Battle Fortress exists is so it can be an unbeatable facility?"

"That's _exactly_ what I mean. From there, it's clear that the concept of 'rules' is meaningless in an unwinnable game."

"But _why_? _Why_ create something so impossible to win?"

"And that," Brandon said, motioning Regice to switch its aggro to the Sun Pokémon, "is, again, none of anyone's business."

Then, Greta had had enough. "Oish! We're getting nowhere with these people! Annie, we need to shut up and fight!"

It frustrated her, but she agreed; the only way forward for anyone was to get that door open. So there was only one thing she could do. _Espeon, use Psychic on Arcanine!_

As soon as the wave of energy enveloped the bulking quadruped, it was clear the real battle had begun. The building's sensors agreed, as a loud grinding sound made its way into May's ears from behind. The door had begun to open!

"C'mon, Pikachu!" she commanded the electric mouse. After he said a "Pika!" in acknowledgement, the pair hurried into the darkened stairway, and not long after they had crawled through the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them.

Like before, they could hear no sounds or feel any rumbles from the fight that had started. There was no way to tell if Anabel and Greta were going to be fine, or really any way to see how they were doing. For all she knew, they would share the same fate that she herself almost faced, and there would be no way to know until it was too late.

Worse still, while leaving them behind did leave a pain in her heart, she found it more alarming just how much _easier_ doing so was actually becoming. The thoughts of reuniting with Ash and clearing up all answers by talking to the mastermind himself had preoccupied her completely, and guilt and doubt soon replaced her feelings of sadness. Was this the right thing to do? Was she selfish for so easily discarding them when it was convenient to do so?

Pikachu, ever so observant to her caretaker's feelings of late, hopped onto her shoulder and tried to comfort her however he could. He cooed in her ear, as if to say, _This is the only way. Don't worry about them; they can hold their own just fine._

May sighed, still doubtful. "Pikachu, what would Ash do in this situation?"

Pikachu took a moment to think before responding. He started slow and contemplative before quickening the pace of his speech. She couldn't be sure, but she thought he said something along the lines of, _Well, probably the same as you. He never gives up on his friends or Pokémon. When I was gravely injured when we first met, he did all he could to protect me from that flock of Spearow and deliver me to Viridian City to get healed._

May had already heard that story a few times offhand in the past, but it was still a welcome one to think about in such an oppressive environment.

 _Like you, I know he would have refused to leave anyone behind,_ Pikachu "continued," _but he knew that if it was the only way, he would go to any lengths to help his friends. Ash has rubbed off on you after all this time; I know you're only doing what he would have done. So please, don't feel discouraged. I'm here with you._

Maybe it was just her projecting onto someone else or putting words in his mouth, but regardless of whether or not that was what he was actually saying, it helped her at least a little. At that point, while she had left everyone behind, she would never be truly alone. Ash was never far from where Pikachu was, and that sense of proximity was quite comforting—even more so now that she still had someone to talk to in order to get her mind off of her anxiety for the next few moments.

She smiled, her drive to climb reinvigorated. "Thank you, Pikachu. I think I'm ready now."

Pikachu gave her a "pika!" in approval and held on tight to her shoulder as she began her final climb. Every step she took, however, despite the newfound will to reach the top, she felt her legs shake more and more before she had to use the handrails to keep her balance. The pressure in the air didn't let up any since she got there—an oddity, considering how high up she must've been by then—and so her breathing quickened to stave off the lightheadedness.

She was thirsty and hungry, and she could hardly wait to have another scalding shower when she was reunited with everyone. It amused her to think that perhaps the promise of food and drink gave her as much motivation as the thought of seeing Ash again did, but she didn't want to think of much else beyond that; for once, she found her happy medium of appreciating the situation's gravity and feeling confident that everything would be okay after all.

The pair continued up the stairs for a few minutes, not saying much to each other after the pep talk earlier. Pikachu's gaze shifted from wall to wall and step to step, absorbing as much as he could of the admittedly-uninteresting architecture in case anything was out of place—like a deathtrap hiding in the shadows, perhaps. May, on the other hand, kept her focus on the next few steps that she could actually see in the dim light, taking care to not trip a third time.

Soon enough, however, Pikachu's ears twitched, and he once again jumped off May's shoulder to run off ahead. They were getting close.

May picked up her pace, her nerves causing every part of her body to shake profusely. After tripping a sixth time, she ended up scraping her knee, but she ignored the pain and got back up to continue her jog up the stairs. Before long, she reached the doorway and saw a room quite unlike the others before it.

While it was spacious and had clear standard battlefield markings like the others, it had more of the vibes of a laboratory more than anything else. There were no bright lights that flipped on like before, so the room remained lit only by the glow of monitors that dotted the walls and a large projector at the end displaying two empty boxes, probably meant for Trainer portraits, and a timer set to 0:00.

The battlefield itself was caged within the larger room in a box made of tempered glass, while the rest of the area was roomy enough to comfortably look inward, as a sort of makeshift spectator area. However, in lieu of bleachers and other seat analogues, unmanned desktop computers were arrayed outside as if to observe unfolding battles—not for amusement, but strictly for data analysis.

Pipes lined the ceiling with some of them leaking steam—most likely just for heating purposes. She could hear the condensed steam falling and making a steady, rhythmic _drip drip drip_ noise as it pelted the top of the tempered glass box like a light rain. At the end of the room, underneath the score projection, there was an outcropping of a wall that appeared to serve as a stage of sorts; structure towers lined the top and held aloft spotlights and loudspeakers that had not yet turned on.

May waited for a few moments with bated breath. Unlike before, nothing was reacting to their mere presence there. For all she knew, they were the only ones even in the room, and a part of her was even starting to believe that maybe she had taken a wrong turn somewhere to begin with. Panic started to well in her, and desperate for anything to happen, she called out to the darkness, "Hello? Is there anyone there?"

For a moment, she was afraid that her call fell on deaf ears, but after a few seconds, she found herself startled by a loud mechanical lift rising from the top of the stage at the end of the room before eventually clanging to a complete stop. From there, she could see the lone figure of a man staring at her—Ash, perhaps?

A hardened look at him told her, no, there was no way. The man's hair was short and slicked back. His hair, while dark, was not black like Ash's was. His attire, too, was also far more formal than how he would normally dress: He was wearing a suit and tie, his white vest seeming to glow in the murky darkness. His face was chiseled and exuded confidence and cruelty, so much so that May's knees weakened from intimidation.

Yes, definitely not Ash.

His look of confidence swiftly turned to incredulity and then what appeared to be anger, like he had seen the ghost of someone who had slighted him in the past. "So it's true," the man said with abrasion in his voice. "You did survive."

May cleared her throat before responding to make sure it wouldn't crack out of fear. "Who are you?"

"I am the administrator of this facility, young lady. You may call me Evergreen."

* * *

 **Okay, I lied. I _was_ distracted by _Super Smash Bros. Ultimate_ while writing this. _I'm sorry!_ :C**

 **And now, for some news. The next update will probably not be for about another month or so. An overseas vacation has a pretty interesting way of being anathema to productivity, so unless I die in a fiery explosion, it may be a good idea to keep an eye out for mid- to late January for the next chapter. Perhaps I'll get some writing done during downtime or during my (very long) flights, but no guarantees.**

 **Anywho, I hope this whets your appetite for just a bit longer! We're getting very close to answering the most pertinent questions that PikamasterADV left for us! Until next time, though, get _Pokémon_!**


	3. 39: 'Tis Better to Love and Never Lose!

**Hoo, boy, that update took forever. Sorry about that, everyone! Between my overseas trip, the difficulty of writing this, and the fact that _Kingdom Hearts III_ is actually (finally, truly) a thing now, getting this out in a timely manner was quite the challenge. But enough with the excuses; let's get on with the next chapter!**

* * *

May always looked forward to the moment she'd faced the man behind the whole conspiracy with a great deal dread, although for the most part, much of it was simply a result of not knowing what to expect. A part of her had imagined he would have adhered more to a villain stereotype, like with a mysterious mask or a cape or something. Here, he was more publicly presentable, like the president of a company, a far cry from the embodiment of pure evil she had envisioned.

Yet the way he carried himself, coupled with the oppressive atmosphere and his fierce expressions, only amplified her fear despite the disconnect. She felt herself crumpling from the pressure, as though gravity itself had doubled, and she had to resist all desire to shield her eyes.

"So you must be May," said the man who had referred to himself as "Evergreen" after a minute of waiting for the girl to get over her hesitation to speak. "After all the ordeals you've endured the past few days, I can't imagine you've come all this way just to greet me with a blank stare."

The man still appeared to have been grappling with a revelation, as he refused to take his eyes off of her, barely even believing what they were showing him. It did little to obstruct his speech, however, as his words flowed with a clarity fit for an orator.

May, on the other hand, was less eloquent, but it wasn't as though she had to impress anyone, nor that the even cared to. She violently shook her head to break her so-called "blank stare" and, against her better judgment, stepped forward to get a better look. "We have a lot to talk about, Mr. Evergreen."

He raised his hand. "Just 'Evergreen' will suffice."

Right, whatever—a lot of insistence regarding a name that she knew wasn't even his to begin with. Nevertheless, she thought it best to humor him, lest she found herself denied answers in her interrogation...or worse, angering the boss of Kanto's infamous criminal organization himself.

"Evergreen, then," she acquiesced. "I have a bunch of questions for you."

He smiled, clearly unconcerned with her accusatory tone. "Well, we're hardly pressed for time. By all means, ask me any questions you desire."

Time for business.

"First of all, what have you done with Ash?"

The man chuckled. "Getting to brass tacks already? Well, I can assure you that he's safe and sound. No need to worry your pretty little face about it."

May, for a moment content with being told something she wanted to hear, sighed in relief. Yet a small part of her still nagged her and kept her from being completely at ease; she could never be sure if he was even telling the truth to start with. "I'm happy to hear that, but..."

She paused, unsure if she was about to tread on ground that she shouldn't. Even so, something still bothered her about when she last saw Ash; the look in his eyes were completely devoid of the compassion she knew they had before, and his voice had dripped with a malice that had not passed his lips in all of the time she knew him. Refusing to hold back, she continued. "That's not exactly what I meant."

He looked nonplussed, but he didn't seem to particularly mind her prodding. "What did you mean, then?"

"He wasn't himself. I saw him do terrible things… Burning Scott's house down, wanting to kill Scott, and threatening to attack us when we tried to stop him? That's not the Ash I know!"

"Scott? The creative head of the Battle Frontier?" So he wasn't going to _completely_ play dumb. That certainly eliminated the need for more introductions, at the very least. "You're throwing around a directory of names of interest, but what do any of them have to do with me? What is it that you accuse me of?"

"I know by now that you've been providing Scott funding, and now recently you've been trying to...k-kill him." She swallowed, resisting the shivers running down her spine. "And you put Ash up to this, didn't you?"

"You mean to say I somehow convinced your little goody-two-shoes boyfriend to assassinate another human being?" To this, Evergreen simply laughed, his bellowing voice fiercely bouncing off the walls and making the glass cage vibrate with a shrill hum. "Now _that_ is a tall tale if I've ever heard one."

May was growing indignant. "Well, it's true, isn't it?"

"Answer me this," he prompted her with a quick, unamused frown after his laughter had ceased. "Why, pray tell, would I jeopardize my good name and my organization's research by asking an innocent kid to pick off such a high-profile target?"

"I dunno," May answered rhetorically. "Maybe because he's been trying to sabotage that whole Network Machine business?"

His eyes slightly narrowed. "What has he told you about that?"

"It's less what he told me than what I saw." She proceeded to explain what she found over the past few days—the fact that Celio's Network Machine had been destroyed, the Brains' insistence on finding the two gemstones needed for it, the mass disappearance and imprisonment of One Island, and additional emphasis on the arson of Scott's house.

"I've been to many of the islands, and I've seen firsthand what you've done. Everything that's happened, it's just obvious by now that you're the one behind it."

Evergreen sighed, shaking his head. "I wonder if the whole archipelago knows about it by now…"

"You're not denying it?"

"I do admit I need an array of Network Machines to do my work, and yes, perhaps I have been a bit overzealous in my attempts to acquire the necessary materials. And yes, Scott's meddling has been troublesome…"

May scanned the man's face and saw that he was speaking as though he were reading from a prepared speech, completely at ease.

"But I didn't make an attempt on his life. Nor did I bring your sweet Ash to do it. To insinuate such is a very bold claim indeed. You insist I have a motive, even, but have you any evidence? Without that, whom do you think the authorities would believe? The whimsical fancies of a hormonal teenager?"

May _knew_ he was behind it, no matter what defense he used. Yet, all she could do was growl at him, conceding his point; indeed, she had no evidence to speak of besides hearsay. It was a tough point for her to let go of, but let go she did, deciding against wasting her breath and time pursuing what would only be a dead end.

"Now then," Evergreen said when it was clear that the girl had run out of ammo to debunk him, "what's your next question?"

The last line of inquiry deflating so heavily took a significant amount of wind out of her sails to follow it up with another. That, coupled with the oppressive atmosphere, made it difficult to focus on any one thing. Despite the high stakes, she felt like she had gone clothes shopping—head dizzy from shifting attention from one item to the next, and feet sore from the choice paralysis that had kept her firmly rooted in place.

After a long, embarrassing moment of deciding on a topic, she opened her mouth, practically speaking so low it came out as a whisper that even she could barely hear. After being asked to repeat herself, she did so with the same gusto of a puppy yelping while its family was sleeping—perfectly audible, but with a timidness made explicitly manifest.

"This place," she chirped, scanning the world outside the glass like a robin in a cage. "What is it for?"

Seemingly disappointed with such a trivial question, he slowly shook his head. "You went all this way without knowing its purpose? It's the latest Battle Frontier facility, the Battle Fortress."

May glared at him. _Don't patronize me,_ she almost said aloud, but she bit her tongue just in time to change course. "That's not what I meant," she instead responded in the most polite manner she could, although doing so did little to mute her irritability. "I think it's kind of obvious there's more to this place than meets the eye."

"Oh? Like what?"

Her patience had run dry. She heatedly recalled the previous departures from her party, trying desperately to hold back the tears that were threatening to well in her eyes. " _Everything!_ " she croaked what would have been a yell had the knot in her throat not been there. "There isn't a single battle facility as cruel and cowardly as this! Forcing Trainers to be separated from their Pokémon? It's awful!"

Evergreen, ever the poster child for human empathy, simply rolled his eyes. "All this outrage coming from a girl who forces her Pokémon to compete and fight in glorified _beauty pageants_? Oh, that's rich. I have a kettle here I'd like you to meet."

May's urge to kill, or at the very least scream threateningly, had sharply risen despite being rather high to start with—and her pool of restraint, while up to that point able to stay her hand, would not sustain for long at the rate he was getting under her skin. She took a deep breath, relaxed her fists, wiped excess moisture from her eyes, and spent some energy simply ignoring his taunts, all the while counting the minutes until she could finally knock him out with a boat oar. "Why would you even design a facility like this, anyway? What's the appeal?"

"I designed it this way because I had to. Sure, it's rough around the edges, but it isn't as though I came up with it willy-nilly while laughing and twirling an evil mustache. My design intentions were— _are_ —multifaceted."

"Why did you have to do this, then?"

"Well, first and foremost, we wanted to advertise it as the hardest challenge of any Battle Frontier facility; it is called the Battle _Fortress_ , after all. We didn't want just anyone coming in and making a bout for it, oh no. Only those who had successfully acquired all seven Frontier Symbols would be personally invited to challenge it.

"This facility was designed as a gauntlet to test how Trainers could strategize both in and out of battle. By being forced to sacrifice however many Pokémon are needed for a given match, they must carefully choose what Pokémon they want to have in reserve for the fights to come."

May stood there, still not quite believing one would regale the design choices of what was essentially a game so callously. "And what happens to the Pokémon who are left behind?"

"Well, if the challenger wins, they have nothing to worry about—and they're practically set for life, to boot. They win accolades, future prospects with the Frontier, and maybe even a specialty mug of their favorite Frontier Brain, if it pleases them. Needless to say, they get their Pokémon back, of course. Until that happens, though, they remain in my custody."

"So that's what it is. You made it unwinnable on purpose to steal people's Pokémon, didn't you?"

Evergreen laughed. "Unwinnable? _You're_ standing here, aren't you?"

"Only because you let me bring an entire party of people to fight for me. You didn't only expect us; it's almost like you actually wanted us to run the gauntlet."

"Well, you aren't wrong there. I'll give you that. As to why that is..." Just then, the man smiled maliciously, eliciting another severe chill down May's spine. "The answer to that is a simple one."

Immediately after, she was startled by a sudden _clang!_ behind her, a sound so loud it shook the glass and her eardrums so much she feared for a moment they'd both shattered. She turned around to locate it, and saw that what had once been an open doorway to the stairwell was barricaded shut with a steel door identical to the others.

"You all know too much."

May's heart sank when she realized what was happening. It was a trap all along, and they all fell for it. She and Pikachu stood there shocked, scarcely able to process the ramifications and even less able still to seek a way out. The feeling of defeat gnawed at her fingertips and weighed on her feet, and it left behind, in lieu of hope, a wave of dizziness that nearly toppled her to the floor.

"Why are you doing this…?" was all May could muster between claustrophobic gasps for air.

"You don't expect me to leave all these loose ends untied, do you?" Evergreen responded callously, without a shred of compassion. "That goes for the traitors, too."

"So even Anabel and Greta are—"

"To be disposed of, yes, the former's usefulness now moot. Along with that former Gym Leader friend of yours, that precocious lass, and those three blasted buffoons. I've been made aware they've wandered too close to our secrets here, as well, so they must also go, I'm afraid."

May then felt an overpowering feeling of guilt consume her. The idea to go off and storm the Battle Fortress to get Ash back was, after all, all hers; she should have foreseen that it was a possibility that a trap would be in waiting for them, but she ignored it, and all her one-track mind led her to was a gallows. And to make matters worse, she led her friends into it, too. Brock, Cyndi, Anabel, Greta, and a reformed Team Rocket...it wasn't a fate any of them deserved.

May revulsed at the thought of the injustice of being treated worse than the criminals that were under his own ranks. "Speaking of traitors," she countered, "what about Tucker and Brandon? What makes you think they won't backstab you like they did Scott?"

"Hmph, Tucker's far too deep into this to dig himself back out unscathed, and he knows it. The man is as desperate as he is flamboyantly vain, and he wouldn't risk packing up and leaving with his reputation in play.

"Brandon, on the other hand, is a special case. A useful idiot, perhaps you could call him. Or, perhaps more accurately, a contractor: We simply have a quid pro quo arrangement, he and I. In exchange for his services and loyalty, I help fund—and keep under wraps—his ancient Pokémon research."

"Wait," May interjected, confused yet hopeful at the same time. "So he's not actually a Team Rocket member?"

"Oh, no," Evergreen laughed. "He's just a carbon copy of Scott: completely unable to properly monetize his talents himself and only able to succeed after having crawled his way to me for a loan. I did agree to help him, of course, but only because I saw the value his research would truly bring. Other than that, he couldn't care less of how I see fit to use him."

He then lightly slapped his forehead, as if a realization had struck. "That's probably enough out of me. We wouldn't want to let Brandon's skeletons fall out of the closet, now would we?"

May sighed, still jittery from the fear of being trapped in a cage with no way out—but she was also disheartened, having come so close to getting to the bottom of what had been bugging her, yet she simultaneously felt like she had gotten no further than when she had begun. "So what now, Evergreen?" she finally said, disappointment and despair laced in her lips. "Are you going to kill us now?"

"You silly girl," the man shot back, gently shaking his head. "Where did you get the idea that I was going to kill you?"

 _Wait, what?_

That was as far from being "disposed," as he put it, as one possibly could, from what she could see. It was simply too good to be true. "You're _not_ going to kill us?" she asked, relieved but suspicious.

His response was gentle but short. "No, of course not."

Then he paused for a moment to reach into his pocket for...something. What it was, exactly, May really couldn't tell in the dim lighting, although she figured it had to have been a remote control of some kind, as what sounded like a loud sports buzzer filled the air not a moment later.

Afterward, a low rumble shook just ahead of where she and Pikachu had stood, revealing a hatch opening in the ground. In its wake, a dark-haired, tatty figure was slowly lifted into the glass cage and had, after the moaning hydraulics came to a halt, faced them with a blank stare.

" _He_ is."

The figure looked all-too familiar. He was a young man of about fourteen years, perhaps more. His hair—hatless and exposed—was black, unkempt, and looked like it hadn't been washed in days. His attire fared no better, bearing the image of one who had been years adrift at sea: The blue vest and pants were ripped and singed in multiple places, patches of exposed flesh visible underneath.

The most striking feature, however, and the one that had most succeeded in impaling May's spirit, was his eyes.

Unlike the warm, auburn orbs she had become smitten with before, they were cold and lifeless, with the luster of common stone. She could just barely manage to gaze into them without shaking, the darkness from his pupils billowing forth like dark storm clouds. The only light within them she could see was a spark of lightning; the only voice, a clap of thunder that had paralyzed her soul. Only after forcing herself to look away did she realize that all it was, was the occasional involuntary discharge from Pikachu—no doubt as dumbfounded as she was.

"A-Ash…" she finally managed to say loudly enough to overshadow the sound of her overactive heartbeat. "It's you… Are you…?"

She had seen him like this before, she remembered. Not in real life, of course, but the uncanniness made her extremely uncomfortable, especially as the memory of her nightmare days prior had recalled in her mind. Except, this time, it wasn't a dream. It was real, and something about him was _wrong_. _Very_ wrong.

Despite all the senses in her body demanding she remain alert, she had to confirm it for herself. She took a step forward, and then another. Fear impeded her ability to walk much further, and the panicked water in her eyes had taken away her ability to see the boy clearly.

"Ash, this isn't funny! You recognize me, don't you?"

Ash didn't answer. Instead, he reached for his belt and lifted up a Poké Ball, pointing it straight at the Electric Mouse ahead.

"What are you—?" she asked in shock, jumping as soon as she realized what it was he was going to try to do.

" _Return_ ," he finally said with the same bizarre intonation of an automaton.

Then, reflexively, May shouted, " _Pikachu, dodge!_ "

He barely did, and to May's relief, the red beam of light that had shot from the ball harmlessly hit the soil where he had been standing. Pikachu took a second to take a couple gasps for air before resuming his battle-ready stance in case the boy decided to take another sneaky shot at him.

"Ash, what are you doing!? Snap out of it!"

"It is clear you have decided we should battle, and so we shall," was all he said in response, ignoring her protest. "Choose your Pokémon."

The familiarity of the situation was not lost on her. In fact, bearing witness to such a grotesque and otherworldly scenario so soon once more only had her more rattled. The cold eyes, the robotic voice, the unresponsiveness to basic commands...the symptoms were identical to Cyndi's when she was hypnotized back in the forest.

"Ash, no! I'm not going to battle you!" She knew the objection probably wouldn't have worked, but she wasn't very keen on raising a blade against her lover so soon without at least trying to de-escalate.

As expected, however, he didn't relent. "Choose your Pokémon."

It was all going nowhere fast, May thought to herself. She shot a glare at the man standing on the stage behind him, her teeth clenching so hard they threatened to grind into a fine powder. "Evergreen, what did you do to him!?"

The man laughed, amused at seeing the fruits of his handiwork paying off so well. "There's one more secret about this place that I hadn't yet told you. Another reason why we made the Battle Fortress such a challenge was because we doubled it as an R&D facility. There were few locations where we could carry out some of the projects I wanted to pursue without people breathing down our necks, so we had to make do. We also couldn't risk having spanners like, say, powerful Trainers who have just completed the Battle Frontier jeopardize our work so easily, if it came to that."

"Answer the question, Evergreen!" May shouted, her teeth still clenched and her eyes still locked in a glare. "What did you do to him!?"

Evergreen gave her a confused sort of look, as though May's ignorance had surprised him yet again. "Oh, did Scott not tell you?" he asked, his tone suggesting feigned concern. "The conditions of our agreement to provide him funding for the Battle Frontier included a clause that relinquished all of his authority over the Brains' terms of employment to me."

She already knew this, of course. "And?"

"That authority includes redefining the terms of their employment whenever I wish—including, ah, mandated _psychological evaluations_ for certain ESP-inclined individuals."

May couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. While it indubitably was human speech coming out of his mouth, it was a sort of arcane mysticism dressed up in the veneer of science fiction to her ears. Processing it submerged her entirely into a feeling of slipstream—the sort of uncomfortable sensation one experiences after bearing witness to something egregiously twisted, like seeing someone turn into a mouse before their eyes.

The feeling numbed all thought before slowing drowning to the repeated echo in the back of her head chanting, _He experimented on Anabel. He experimented on Anabel._ _ **He experimented on Anabel.**_

"As you can imagine," he continued, not seeming to have noticed May having temporarily fallen into a stupor, "it was quite the endeavor receiving the data necessary to emulate Anabel's abilities. She was cooperative enough to not show resistance—well, after a while, anyway—but the real difficulty was understanding their underlying mechanics themselves. Psychic powers aren't quite an exact science… But soon enough, we had a breakthrough, and now generating and manipulating the same waves that she uses is quite trivial."

"So the reason Ash was on the verge of assassinating Scott and doing your bidding was because you _hypnotized_ him into doing it?"

"Again with the baseless accusations? His urge to kill was completely of his own volition. The poor boy was so heartbroken over your 'death' that he saw no other avenue but to seek justice himself. All I did was give him a nudge—an idea of who was responsible for it—and he took it as gospel. Your boyfriend has quite a vengeful side of him, don't you know?"

No, she refused to believe it. He had to be lying. There was no way that Ash would succumb to such malevolent actions. He guided himself only by his gut, sure, and was sometimes too bullheaded to trust anything else that disagreed with it, but his gut never told him to harm another individual. _Revenge_ was a term practically absent from his vocabulary, let alone his conscience, so he couldn't have been himself when she heard him utter such poison-laden bile in front of her.

"Do you doubt what I say?" Evergreen said, snapping her out of her train of thought. "When you explained to him your side of the story, did he look unresponsive? Were his eyes glazed over? Can you look at him right now and say that what you see before you is how he acted?"

She couldn't.

"So that leaves one singular truth: Not only was he of sound mind, he was more resolved than any flimsy meat puppet could ever be. He _wanted_ revenge. He _seeked_ my help to get it. He _trained_ with me to prepare for that moment—and, in so doing, he became more than capable of carrying out the justice he so desired and, in exchange for my help, became my Champion of the Battle Fortress."

And so May's hope for Ash's innocence, after cracking under pressure, had finally shattered. She could think of no narrative more plausible than the one Evergreen presented her. There was no reasonable doubt, no optimistic story she could have woven, and not even an insanity defense she could raise on his behalf. It was attempted murder, without question.

With no way out, the tears she had been holding back with sheer will began to fall from May's eyes. She didn't want to believe what he was saying, and a part of her still refused to. The other half, however, couldn't deny it. The conflict between her inner voices arguing amongst themselves ushered in a weakness that had nearly brought her to her knees, and all she could do to argue was quietly weep.

Evergreen, his story complete, looked on at the pitiful sight. "It seems you have no more questions for me, and so we have run out of time. It's very regrettable, truly, that the life of such an upstart Trainer as yourself must end without at least having a moment to mourn, but _c'est la vie_."

He then called out to Ash with a booming, commanding voice. "Champion! Eliminate her, now!"

"Acknowledged," Ash responded robotically, his actions unperturbed by the girl's silent tears. "Charizard, I choose you."

Immediately after, there was a loud _pop_ followed by a blinding flash of light, and when it faded, there stood Ash's infamous Flame Pokémon, familiar in most qualities—strength, bulk, and intimidation—but notably surreal in others. He was hunched over in stature to such an exaggerated extent, and his eyes were dazed and didn't really look at May so much as look past her, as if she were as uninteresting to look at as a tree stump.

Now that she thought about it, he didn't so much as make a peep when he was summoned, either. There was no roar, flapping of wings, or even a thin plume of smoke from his nostrils, as was his normally-preferred method to intimidate. So, too, did his facial expression not match the demeanor she came to know him for. In many ways, he and Ash looked the same, absent of any sort of fighting spirit or even, one may say, much of a spirit at all; instead, it was replaced by some mindless imperative to fight—not for sport but simply to fulfil a command.

May, in a sense, wasn't too different then. She, too, lacked focus in her eyes and drive in her soul. Her head hung low, barely able to see clearly Charizard's clawed feet scraping the dirt and gravel. Nor did she really want to or care much anymore. The logical part of her brain did realize that Evergreen was just trying to demoralize her out of resisting, but the emotional part ignored that reasoning and fell for the mind game all too easily regardless.

 _May!_

What did it matter, anyway? If Ash had really fallen, then was it really worth it? Did anything even matter anymore? Maybe it was best for her to fade into the dark and let Evergreen have his way.

"Charizard, use Slash."

Of course it was worth it. Darkness lies within everyone. No one is perfect. No matter what Ash did, he still deserved a second chance and, at the very least, a chance to tell his side of the story.

 _May!_

He already _did_ tell his side of the story, however. He said it himself: Everything he did, he did to avenge both her and Pikachu. He confessed to his crime, and what else? Scott's house was engulfed in flames through no one's fault but his own.

 _May!_

But Scott still lived, and Ash hadn't killed anyone. Even more, he was ecstatic— _ecstatic!_ —to see them again, and after everyone had said their part, he saw it fit to ask the mastermind himself his side of the story. He wasn't a mindless killer like Evergreen had suggested he was. He wasn't malicious. Ash deserved another shot like anyone else, _and she would not give up on him._

 _ **May! Look out!**_

She snapped her focus ahead of her and instinctively leapt with all of her might to her left to avoid a claw that made its way just mere inches from her neck. Her brain's processing overclocked from the fresh dose of adrenaline, and in a moment that felt eerily like slow motion, she glanced to her right and saw that her escape was enabled not just by her last-second instinct to survive but also a small yellow blur ramming head first into Charizard's side. The relatively-tiny mass had little effect on the normally overwhelming inertia of the other, but it was _just enough_ to at least alter his course.

Her foot stomped the ground as she nearly lost her balance, not quite sticking the landing and having to teeter for a moment to straighten herself. Charizard, having noticed that he missed, turned to face her and immediately, unenthusiastically readied another Slash her way. The lack of the element of surprise hampered his attempt, however, as she more-readily jumped back to regain space and landed with a tad more finesse before the second swipe could strike her.

It wasn't as though she had much of an advantage despite it, really. Charizard was faster, stronger, and bolder than she was; so going solo against him had no favorable endgame. Instinctively, she reached for a Poké Ball and called for the first Pokémon that came to her mind as she stared down into the caldera that had threatened to erupt once more.

"Eevee, take the stage!"

Another light flickered between her and her adversary, and the flash appeared to distract Charizard at least for a little bit, just long enough for her to skitter away to a safer distance. When her bushy-tailed, canine-like Pokémon appeared in its place, there was still little time to waste, however. "Eevee, Tackle! Keep him off me!"

Without delay, her Eevee did what was told and slipped past Charizard's defenses to slam into him with such a force that staggered him a bit—not nearly enough to knock him over but enough still to draw aggro. Satisfied, she barked a loud " _Bui!_ " to celebrate but didn't dare take her eyes off her opponent.

"Charizard," Ash began to command, still emotionally lifeless and utterly immune to Eevee's taunting, "use Seismic Toss on Eevee."

 _Seismic Toss already!?_ May exclaimed in her head. That attack Ash would normally not use until well after his opponent was damaged enough that he needed a _coup de grâce_ , or at least she had never recalled seeing him instruct his Pokémon to use it right out of the gate like that. Perhaps Evergreen, or whoever else it was who was controlling his mind, had little experience with his fighting style to know better—or, even more worrisome, he knew exactly what he was doing.

In a panic, May commanded Eevee to get out of the way, but it was all too late: Charizard rushed forward with a powerful flap of his wings and scooped up the small Pokémon in his claws. Gripping her so tightly she couldn't break free, he jetted up towards the ceiling of the glass box and, at the apex of his flight, tumbled forward endlessly—faster and faster and faster until both Pokémon looked almost like a blurred ring from below.

" _Eevee, break free!_ "

It was impossible. Charizard's grip was too strong, and the constant spinning made Eevee too dizzy to do much. Before long, he began his final nosedive, inching closer and closer to the ground before finally letting go. A loud crash echoed about the field, and a cloud of dust filled the enclosed space, taking a few sweet moments to settle to reveal the result, like a rug unveiling a new car model at a show.

In the center of the field was a small crater where dust, sand, and dirt had been displaced from the impact. In the center of it was May's Eevee, dazed and completely unable to move. She had gone down in a single hit.

May was in shock. She knew Charizard was strong already and that he'd gone through extra training over the past few days, but she had never anticipated such unprecedented improvement so quickly. The difference wasn't just night and day; it was January and July.

She recalled her Pokémon before the damage got any worse and vowed to get her healed up at the earliest opportunity. She looked upon the nigh-insurmountable obstacle ahead and heard a dread-filled lamentation in her honor, or at least an imaginary one composed in the heat of the moment.

Desperate, she brought her memory back to that day in the woods when they all found Cyndi in the hopes of finding some kind of clue that could help. It was a straightforward chain of events, though it still wasn't that much to go off of: The group found her, she essentially declared war without provocation, Ash mistakenly called for Sceptile despite him no longer being in his party and substituted Pikachu, and then Cyndi resumed battle as if Sceptile was actually there.

The latter struck her as especially odd. It was as though she was hallucinating wholesale something completely contrary to what was reality, and not only that, she didn't even seem to notice that her Skarmory had been defeated. Granted, that was likely simply an amateurish demonstration of control on Anabel's side, so it wasn't like she could expect Evergreen to make the same mistake.

Or could she?

She reached for her Poké Balls to place Eevee's back, and then swung her arm forward to send out the Pokémon she traded for: "Your turn, Squirtle!" Of course, she had left her Squirtle back in Pallet Town before she and Ash had ferried to the Sevii Islands, and so all that flew out of her hand was an empty pocket of air—just as planned.

However, all Ash did was stare blankly at where a flash of light would have been and stand silently for a few seconds before finally saying, "Charizard, use Slash on May."

May gasped, her mouth agape. "It's not working!?" She figured it had to have been a long shot, but the prospect of being clever was too tempting to pass up. Even so, why didn't it work?

"I know what you're trying to do," Evergreen stated plainly, smiling as though he himself had captured a queen with a bishop. "Did you really think we didn't encounter that issue repeatedly during testing? I personally made sure that was the _first_ thing that was fixed."

She couldn't depend on taking advantage of exploits. _If I want to get out in one piece, I'll need to snap him out of it somehow._ The solution was simple enough, but even so, she had no idea how to even carry it out. Heck, she had no idea what was even causing it in the first place. Figuring that out was priority number one—but how could she do it?

She saw Charizard twitch, the first sign of him about to lunge. Time of the essence, she couldn't come to rely on her own Pokémon for the time being, so she had to go with the next best thing. "Pikachu, take the stage!"

Pikachu nodded in acknowledgement and zipped up to stand between him and May in protection, raring to go and ready to pounce, himself.

"Use Thunderbolt!"

His cheeks then built up stored charge and, with a loud cry, let it all out with a bright flash of lightning at the winged lizard. It hit its mark, and Charizard was engulfed in an electrostatic light. He roared in pain and almost dropped to his knees when the sustained bolt of lightning had ceased a couple seconds later, after which he charged toward Pikachu at Ash's command with another Slash attack.

 _He's impossible to stop!_ While Pikachu was able to dodge to the side using Agility, May could tell Charizard had practice closing gaps swiftly. He was very clearly deadly in close-quarters combat, and so May commanded Pikachu to stay at a respectable distance while she continued to mull over how to stop the battle quickly.

It was especially weird, this situation, because when Cyndi was hypnotized in the forest, she was the only one affected. Her Skarmory was completely unaffected—which made sense, as it couldn't be possible that Anabel could psychically control a Pokémon while they were already recalled in a Poké Ball, not to mention the alleged difficulty of controlling just one person, and at a distance, at that.

Ash and Charizard, however, were definitely both hypnotized, showing the exact same symptoms. Charizard was fierce, to be sure, but he wasn't as savage in combat as she'd previously seen him, so it was the only explanation.

That still didn't explain the method, however. How was Evergreen able to pull this off? Was he himself psychic? If he was, why would he need a Champion or a team of underlings to do his bidding? Not only that, how would he be able to hypnotize two victims at once?

No, it was impossible. Anabel's voice filled her ears as she recalled the story she told everyone at the Pokémon Center after their encounter:

 _Anabel read Cyndi's mind and saw what she was dreaming about in her unconscious state. She was wandering a vast, bright forest, searching for something. With a deep breath, Anabel focused her mind. She tapped into the girl's thoughts, and soon the body began to sit up, eyes still shut. Her eyelids slowly opened, but the orbs within remained dim, focused on some faraway, unseen object._

 _"Awesome!" Greta exclaimed, unable to stop herself from jumping up in celebration. "You really did it!"_

 _The startling jump caused Anabel to lose her concentration. The younger girl fell backwards again, resuming her undisturbed slumber. Anabel, on the other hand, fell back into a sitting position, panting deeply with sweat pouring down her head._

 _"What happened?" the blonde asked, stepping over. "Why did she fall back down?_

" _It… it… it requires the utmost concentration," Anabel said, still panting. "When you spoke, I couldn't focus." She shook her head. "And unless you couldn't tell, it's already really taxing as it is."_

 _Greta scowled. "Well, then pick up the kid and let's go," she gruffly said, turning around to leave. Anabel did as she was told and, with Cyndi resting precariously on her back in an awkward piggyback ride, followed suit._

If Evergreen were the one controlling them directly, he wouldn't have been able to converse with her without him losing his concentration, she noted. And, come to think of it, if he were psychic, he wouldn't have needed to subject Anabel to those "evaluations" anyway. So, it had to have been something else who was controlling them. But what?

Was it some sort of machine giving off weird mind-control signals somewhere in the facility? No, that was impossible, too, or else she and Pikachu would've been hypnotized along with the others. It had to be something, though—something that could not have its concentration broken so easily, nor could it be so non-discriminatory as to put everyone within a one-kilometer distance under control.

As Charizard swooped by in an attempt to snap at a Pikachu still too quick to catch, May caught caught a small glimpse of what it could have been: After he missed his target and ascended, exposing the back of his horns, she saw what looked to be a black hair clip clamped to the nape of his neck and running a few inches down his spine. She didn't get a much better look at it in the split second she had, but she knew for a fact that it wasn't there when she and Ash had gone flying the other day.

And so she had another idea—a risky one.

"Pikachu, wait for it to grab you with a Seismic Toss!"

Pikachu gaped at her, completely dumbfounded, and then after a second, his expression twisted into a look of incredulity when he realized that he didn't, in fact, mishear her.

"I know it sounds crazy," she assured him, "but trust me on this. Let him get in range, and wait for my command."

Pikachu still didn't seem very convinced, but he nevertheless gave a muted "pika" in understanding, although it was less out of confidence and more like he wanted to say, "All right, but this is insane."

Ash—or perhaps his controller, rather—seemed to agree. "Charizard, use Seismic Toss."

Perfect. Charizard silently complied with his request and swooped back down towards Pikachu, still emotionally constrained but, nevertheless, building up as much speed as one who had gone berserk. Pikachu twitched but somehow resisted all of his urge to dodge; besides a few glances from side to side, he stood firm until he got closer.

And closer.

 _Closer_.

And then finally, "Pikachu, jump over him and use Iron Tail on his neck!"

He didn't even think twice; his jump came by pure survival instinct as Charizard's nose was practically touching his. Unfortunately, though, the Flame Pokémon was faster that time, managing to snatch Pikachu right out of the air like a frog from a pond.

May's heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she imagined all manner of gruesome outcomes that were about to unfold, but she pressed on anyway—she had to. "Break free of his grip, or it's all over! Thundershock his claws!"

Pikachu obeyed, and a small spark of light flashed from above. By the looks of it, it was enough to loosen Charizard's grip, and he wasted no time to break free. From there, a rather unusual marvel showed itself to the spectators below: A small figure struggled against the weaving and bucking of the colossus, barely able to keep his grip and shaking about like a ragdoll. There were a few times that May feared that a fall was inevitable, but somehow he managed to hang on and inch his way closer to his neck, until finally he saw the strange black device surgically inserted into his spine.

After a few seconds, he was in range, but Charizard had only grown more violent in the hopes of forcing him off. When he figured out how to properly grip him, however, it was all too late. "Now, go for it, Pikachu! _Iron Tail!_ "

To be honest, she wasn't even sure how it would work in that sort of scenario. Charizard was weaving, changing course, accelerating and decelerating, and was just overall a volatile and unpredictable animal. Pikachu needed time to charge energy into his tail and then get a running start to finally strike his target. It was a very particular set of steps that, to that day, didn't yield consistent results. A voice in her head asked her, how could she expect him to perform such a specific move when he barely had any control over his movement to begin with?

And then there was the matter of what the aftermath would be. Would it even work? Or, if it did, would Charizard even be okay? Would destroying a device with it still functioning cause any bad side effects? Would the Iron Tail miss or be so strong that it would cause nerve damage? What if it permanently paralyzed him—or worse?

May shut up the voice, insisting that she had faith Pikachu would do it and that everything would work out. Self doubt in her abilities to instruct Pokémon remained, but she knew he could handle it and that he would prevail. The only other choice she had was to surrender, and belief itself was all that was left of what she could put faith in.

Pikachu, having taken a moment to charge his tail, waited for the right moment to jump and slam it into his target, which was not as easy as it looked, considering the constant shifting forces shaking him about like a maraca. Before long, though, he got his chance when Charizard took just a couple seconds to rest before attempting to shake him off again; he flew straight, just a few feet below the top of the glass box—a bit of a tight squeeze for most, but for Pikachu's purposes, it was enough space to get the job done.

He maintained the charge, jumped into the air, quickly twisted to maximize his torque, and then—

 _WHAM!_

Charizard's eyes grew dim from the impact and he silently began to fall back to earth, the back of his neck sparking with small discharges. Bits of plastic and metal showered down from the sky like little meteoroids and left behind thin, wispy contrails that smelled of sulfur and burnt rubber. He landed with a loud crash, and Pikachu soon followed, fortunately managing to land, however ungracefully, on the former's prone body like a trampoline.

May waited with bated breath while the dust cleared, clutching her heart in panicked concern as she spied for even the slightest hint of movement from the two Pokémon. Pikachu, a tad dazed from the landing, climbed up from Charizard's back and signaled to her a peace sign. So he was okay, at least. Charizard himself, on the other hand, still didn't move.

Not good, she told herself. She sprinted up to Ash's Fire-type Pokémon and inspected his body for any obvious injuries. His scales were tough and singed a bit from the Electric-type attacks, but otherwise, any wounds he suffered were superficial. Even his spine seemed okay despite the strong Iron Tail that completely destroyed that device, whatever it was, some parts of which still attached but, at that point, hardly more functional than body piercings.

And yet he himself would not wake.

She tried to shake him awake, and shook harder when her meager strength couldn't move him, and when he remained still, her breath froze in her lungs. "Charizard, wake up!" she wanted to say, but her throat choked on her fear. Pikachu joined in, attempting to add his strength to her own, but he still did not budge.

May's terror grew tenfold; she hugged her chest and began to shake profusely, dire and morbid thoughts running through her head. _I killed him…_ she repeated to herself over and over. _He's dead…_ Ages passed, it felt like, with her just sitting there, until she heard a startlingly loud noise erupt in front of her.

 _Zzz…_

...He was asleep? Did that mean he was okay and that he wasn't hypnotized anymore after all? The fact that he was no longer trying to kill her was a rather encouraging sign, to be sure—but she couldn't be positive until she had another data point to test with.

She stood to face Ash once more. He stared back at her absentmindedly, as though he had just gotten up from a long nap himself, or was resurrected from the dead and hungered for her brains. There were no other signs of emotion, nor any noticeable reaction from having one of his strongest Pokémon felled so quickly. Instead, he slowly raised his Poké Ball and uttered, "Charizard, return," and waited until his Pokémon was completely engulfed in a red light and safely encapsulated.

Then she had another idea.

Letting the wild girl inside her take control, she sprinted toward him without thinking and tackled Ash to the ground before he had the chance to send out his next Pokémon. She embraced his arms and pinned his feet to keep him from escaping, an endeavor made more challenging by her inferior strength. Fortunately, her leverage and flexibility where significantly superior to his, especially with his motions akin to that of a marionette with no fine motor control.

"What are you doing!?" Evergreen shouted from atop the stage. "Stop what you're doing at once!"

That only made her want to struggle more. In defiance, she put more of her upper body strength to work, including even her head to keep his from flailing about. Through their fight, she caught a nauseating whiff of his odor—pungent from an obvious lack of bathing and a slight burning from some unknown source, except maybe his training with Charizard. She held her breath to keep herself from gagging and conceding room for him to fight back, and after a few seconds, she managed to keep him pinned onto his stomach.

She tugged the back of his shirt down, and then she saw it—a strange, black device implanted into the back of his neck. A braid of wires ran down about a three-inch space along his spine, held together by a brace with the likeness of a hair clip or a stereotypical integrated circuit. The wires had the appearance of a dark grapevine growing out of twelve, maybe sixteen, entries into his flesh; and each had a small green LED faintly twinkling like a tiny wireless ethernet adapter.

" _NO!_ "

May ignored Evergreen's futile attempt to stop her and reached for the wires, yanking as hard as she could. There was significant resistance, and she was afraid that she was going to rip his skin off. Her fears were assuaged, however, when they eventually snapped out, and with them, the black brace. And, almost like a switch had been flipped off, Ash's body went completely limp and no longer tried to struggle against her weight.

Taking a moment to rest, she inspected the site on his neck where the device had been. There were visible puncture marks left behind where the wiring was injected into his skin, but there was no bleeding or anything else to indicate that they had healed, which suggested the device had been installed very recently. She shuddered to think how much it was going to sting when he woke up, though…

Satisfied at her work dispatching her attackers, she stood up and brushed all the dust off her legs. Afterward, she turned to face Evergreen, who looked—well, "hell on earth" was probably how one would have most aptly described the sort of outrage that most wouldn't consider to be physiologically possible. His face was a deep crimson and twisted with such an ire for her that she expected his head to literally explode at any moment. He shook violently in a last-ditch attempt to control his temper, tapping his feet when the urge to strangle her had almost taken hold.

But, surprisingly, he didn't speak.

"So what now, Evergreen?" May taunted, holding up the device as though it were the head of a slain enemy. "Not much of a threat without slaves to hide behind, are ya?"

He was as quiet as the grave. He uttered nothing in response.

"Cat got your tongue? Well, if you have no more opponents to send my way, then—"

She was interrupted from a groan coming from the ground. May turned to see the source, and she saw Ash barely managing to push himself up with wobbly arms. Concern for the boy washed over her and overrode any desire to continue antagonizing the man watching them both with a gaze filled to the brim with spite.

"Ash! You're awake?" she exclaimed as she rushed over to help him. Pikachu, also excited, dashed over along with her and tugged on his shirt, as if to do whatever he could to help him up.

"M-May…?" he grumbled, clearly groggy. "Where am I…?"

"No time to explain. Are you okay? Can you walk?"

"Y...yeah, I think so…" He tried to push himself up and stand, but he had overestimated himself; his legs were quite weak to stand on on his own, and his balance was abysmal, made worse as soon as his mind registered the agonizing sharp pain in the back of his neck. He clutched it and fell backwards into May's arms, writhing. And, almost as soon as he had the chance to massage his neck, his head cracked open with a debilitating migraine of its own. "Aaagh! It hurts! _Everything hurts!_ What happened to me?"

"Ash, shh, calm down. You'll be all right," she cooed soothingly. "You were under a hypnotic 'spell,' kinda, but Pikachu and I got you out of it."

Her words did little to numb the pain, but the sound of her voice still had a sort of tranquilizing effect on him. He stopped squirming and resisting May's attempts to get him to calm himself, eventually taking deep breaths when she instructed him to. Soon enough, enough of the pain subsided to the point where he could continue the conversation without having to recoil and wince, if for a moment.

"I was hypnotized? Like with Cyndi in the forest the other day?"

May nodded. "But it wasn't Anabel this time. It was _this._ " She held up the device still clutched in her hand and handed it to him. He looked at it with a sort of confused wonder, turning it and spinning in all the ways he could to absorb every angle and individual piece. He became fixated on the wires, brace, and particularly the nearly couple dozen thin needles that glistened in the light. He touched the back of his neck for a moment to feel the puncture wounds and then tossed the device away in disgust when he realized that the needles were _inside him_ not a moment ago.

"Ash, what do you remember last?"

He stared off into space for a bit as he rewound his memories and played them back in sequence. "Well, I saw you again, and then I flew back to the Battle Fortress, and then I went to talk to Evergreen, and then…" He paused, his mind having gone blank, followed up quickly with another powerful migraine. He clutched his head and roared in agony, nearly breaking May's heart.

"Yes? And then?"

"I...don't remember…" He trailed off for a moment before glaring holes into the stones resting next to them. "But I do know who caused this." To May's surprise, he got up with all of his might, and though he swayed a bit as he struggled to recalibrate his balance, he was up and about and able to completely ignore the pain he was in.

"Evergreen!" he shouted, startling the girl. "I know it's you! What did you do to me?"

The man looked over at him for a moment before turning to the side and averting his gaze, still saying nothing.

" _Answer me!_ "

No longer able to keep his rage under control, Evergreen then loosened his vocal chords and let loose with all the venting his body needed. " _You will not speak to me in that way, you little whelp!_ " he bellowed, taking Ash aback. "I did not intend to have all of my work undone by a couple of _dumb, daft, dimwitted_ _ **dolts**_ _!_ And you have the _gall_ to demand I tell you what I've done!? _How dare you!_ "

Ash said nothing. The heated outburst coming from the man who, not long ago, was helping him ostensibly under the goodness of his heart surprised him and, to put it simply, scared him—the sort of fear he reserved only for the quiet ones who finally cracked under a titanic weight. Unable to voice any sort of response, all he could do was motion for him to continue after his rant had stalled by an awkward pause.

"Yes, I put you under a hypnotic trance. What with your beloved girlfriend's miraculous resurrection and all, there was little more leverage I could exert over you without taking...less moderate measures. And so I just used that ability that girl Anabel was kind enough to teach us so I could get my Champion back to tie up the rest of the loose ends."

"Anabel helped you with this?"

"Indeed, she did—and that is all I will say to you. You should know I _abhor_ repeating myself, and between you and the girl there, I think you all know plenty enough."

May tapped Ash's shoulder. "Don't worry," she whispered. "I'll fill you in when we get out of here."

Evergreen let out a frustrated, raspy chuckle. "And don't think this means that you're getting out of here. The doors are all locked, and you have no way out."

Ash stepped forward between him and May and Pikachu, ignoring the headaches that half-blinded him. "We're not powerless, you know. I may be in pain, but I'm not under your control anymore. We still have our Pokémon, and what do you have? You have none of your own!"

Evergreen flashed a grin, still clearly seething with rage. "First of all, you only have that yellow rat to help you. Well, that and your girlfriend's Pokémon, or what's left of them. Your Charizard is out cold, and I saw to it your other Pokémon have devices of their own—and believe me, they will not hesitate to use lethal force against you if it came to that. So don't even try to send them out."

Then...he laughed. "Second of all...I'm not completely defenseless. I do have one more Pokémon that can defend me."

 _Wait, he does?_ Ash thought to himself. _He never told me during training he had a Pokémon with him…_ Then the question became, what? What kind of Pokémon did he get a hold of that would be able to keep them away? Whatever it was, he was confident that between Pikachu and May's remaining Pokémon, they'd be able to overcome whatever he could throw their way, no problem; but even so, the thought scared him deep down.

His fears were realized when a loud fingersnap stabbed his ears and further inflamed his headache. A woosh filled the room outside the glass box, and a strong gust of wind bellowed in a twisting vortex and knocked over most of the monitors that were already precariously hanging over the edges of their desks. The swirling air spun faster and faster until it became a towering spire of fire, engulfing the box completely and quickly turning the battlefield into a greenhouse and blinding the couple in a dazzling display of rainbow flames.

They shielded their eyes before their retinas could burn and almost toppled over when a powerful rumble filled the stadium, followed by a loud crash and the sound of shattered glass pelting the ground like a scalding hail. When the sound of the crystalline rain had petered out, May took a moment to feel the air, and, oddly enough, it was no longer so hot that she thought her skin was going to melt off. It was cool and breezy, not unlike the tropical zephyr the couple had enjoyed not long ago.

When she looked up, however, a tropical paradise she did not see.

Instead, she saw a great bird, its wings dyed a brilliant shade of gold and orange. Its aura, significantly hotter than the surrounding cooler air, shined upon them like the sun, its silver comb and tail feathers radiating a heavenly light. Its down scintillated, tiny stars popping in and out of existence against the matte lighting of the dull black ceiling.

The wings' flaps generated mini tornadic infernos that swirled in all directions before eventually twisting themselves into nothingness. Its talons continuously gripped at the air, like it was strangling prey or had seen pray to strangle. Its beak opened, revealing a deafening shriek that vibrated their ribs like tuning forks and forced them to clamp their ears shut.

This was no mere Pokémon that Evergreen had hidden up his sleeve. It was one the legends themselves had spoken of—and it had eyed the three of them hungrily.

* * *

 **Remember when I said that this chapter was difficult to write? I wasn't kidding. It was far longer than I was aiming for, had dialogue that was hard to perfect (and even then, I feel it could've been better...), and had action, which I have a love-hate relationship with writing. Considering what's implied in the cliffhanger-dun dun duuuuuuun!-I imagine the next one won't be that much easier, but hey.**

 **With that, we've finally reached the final battle! Tune in next time to see the thrilling conclusion! Well, before the epilogue, that is. Until then, folks, get Pokémon!**

 **also yes _kingdom hearts iii_ did make me cry thanks for asking**


	4. 40: Together, We're Unbeatable!

**Well, this took far longer than I wanted. Between writer's block and my low-key hatred for writing action scenes, this was a few months in the making. So, many apologies for the long wait, but I hope this makes up for it!**

 **Finally, the moment we all, myself included, have been waiting for: the final battle.**

* * *

May stood in awe at the frightening sight and admired its strange beauty in the same way a fish would look upon an osprey, her pointer finger limply outstretched but her mouth agape and silent from shock. She stared at the bird, both to carefully read its movement in case it suddenly attacked, as well as to simply take in a view most in their lifetimes would never. The bird, in turn, stared back, as if to enjoy the same luxury.

Ash, ever scholar that he was, instinctively reached for his Pokédex but recoiled when his migraine zapped his head. Between the headache and the waves of heat distorting the light around the Pokémon like a liquid magnifying glass, he couldn't see ahead very clearly. Feeling vulnerable, he blindly grasped for May's hand to get his bearings but gripped nothing but thin air.

After a while, May's throat could finally make a sound resembling human speech and string some meaning together. "Th-that's it…! The Ho-Oh from my dream... That's it…"

"The one that had different colors?" Ash asked through clamped eyes and clenched teeth. "That Ho-Oh?"

The bird's shape and scheme were unmistakably different than what the Pokédex showed her, and her dream was so vivid and traumatic she'd never conceived confusing the two. She nodded and turned to face the shadowy man looking down upon them from behind his demigodlike bodyguard, gripping Ash's hand tightly so he didn't have to fumble any longer.

"How did you even manage to find this, Evergreen?" she asked him as their defacto representative while Ash still reeled from having that device ripped off of him. "Did you steal this one, too?"

"I'm no more a thief than a Trainer who would swipe a Spearow from its nest, if that's what you're calling me," he snapped back. "The only thing that differed was the method. All I needed was a lead where to find it—and did I not say that Brandon's research would pay off in dividends?"

"So this is why you roped up Brandon into this? So you could capture Ho-Oh?"

Evergreen sighed regretfully. "No way to let the cat back into the bag, I suppose. But in short, yes."

"Why would he even agree to go along with what you wanted?" Ash growled, his voice raspy. "Was this the 'dream' he cared so much about?"

"He was never that forthcoming about that, even to me, but it couldn't be more obvious. He pursued his research with the sole purpose of finding and studying Ho-Oh, and not only did he ultimately succeed, but also with his help, we discovered a truly marvelous specimen. And now, we get to put it to the test."

Ash struggled against his weight to pull himself upright. "Not if I have anything to say about it!" He stepped forward, finally getting the hang of his balance, but the vibration of his voice ringing in his jaw triggered another severe migraine. He instinctively put his hand to his temple, yet try as he might to maintain eye contact with his adversary, the pain overpowered him and forced his eyes closed.

May then pushed herself past and held him back with a protective, outstretched arm, shaking her head. "No, Ash. You need to rest. Let me take it from here."

Ash was taken aback, his mouth ajar, stunned—the feeling of electricity still shocking his cranium, incidentally. He didn't much like the thought of him being useless to assist, and he would have shaken his own head back at her in protest, were it not for the fact that shaking his brain about like a soggy cabbage in a jar would only have made the pain worse. "Are you sure?" he instead asked, half conceding. "By yourself?"

"Of course! Just sit tight. I'll protect you this time. Go and rest." Taking her eyes off of him while he found a safe spot to take a breather, she turned to face Evergreen and the Ho-Oh under his command. "C'mon, Pikachu!"

Pikachu dashed to her side and unleashed a few warning sparks from his cheeks, snarling " _Pika!"_ in an adrenaline-filled war cry. Ho-Oh snapped back at him with a rally of its own so loud it almost shattered what remained of the glass box and blew a sizeable volume of dust in their eyes. But try as the ensuing shockwave might to knock them over, they planted their feet and refused to back down.

"All right, 'Evergreen.' It ends now!"

The swagger induced little more reaction out of him than a chuckle. "Well, aren't you a confident one. Let's find out how long you'll survive."

Evergreen thrust his hand forward and clenched his fist, his rage having come to a simmer; his composure, congealed. "Now, Ho-Oh! Incinerate them with Sacred Fire!"

A loud whistle buzzed in the air in front of them as a white-hot fireball, with the intensity to match a distant nova, materialized in front of the Pokémon's beak. A shockwave of air like that from a jet engine burst through just a moment later, the mystical ball of flame careening towards the relatively-unimposing pair staring up from down below like a deer in a pair of headlights.

May had but only a couple seconds to react, let alone issue a command, so much of what happened next was largely the result of instinct: The two ran in two separate directions before the destructive comet struck the ground and braced for the imminent impact. There was a loud explosion and a hot flash of light in front of them, and she had half expected being riddled with stone and glass shrapnel. To her relief, however, all she got was a cloud of dust in her eyes and hair.

She looked around as the fallout settled to the ground and realized that the shockwave had launched her a good couple meters backwards. Pikachu didn't fare much better, having sprawled onto his back in a daze. "Pikachu!" she called between coughs and gasps for clean air. "Are you okay?"

Pikachu scrambled to get up and ran in the opposite direction to create some space between him and the large bird before it launched another bomblike volley. He didn't validate her concerned call with a response, but the fact that he had started moving like nothing had happened was enough of an answer for her.

The good news forced a smile on her face. "All right, I'll take that as a yes. In that case, use Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu built up a massive charge before letting loose a major surge of electrical energy. It flew towards Ho-Oh fast and clean, and May cheered internally when the hit was all but assured. However, not even a second later, it inexplicably curved to the side before harmlessly hitting the ground just a few feet from where May had gotten back up, as though a gale that somehow had the ability to redirect lightning had whipped up and blew at them.

The clap of thunder that boomed in her ears gave her more of a jolt than the Thunderbolt would have, although the large spark spooked her nonetheless. How did that even happen? Pikachu's aim was spot-on, especially with such a straightforward shot to its target. It couldn't have just been a rookie mistake, so what happened?

She would have sooner not wanted the question answered if it meant having to be shamed—not that Evergreen paid any due sympathy to her concerns. "Do you like it?" he said with a sneer. "I was as surprised as you to find that it had access to Extrasensory—due in no small part to the fact that it had practically destroyed the first device we tested on it and even almost bricked our computer equipment. But 'tis how the path of science sometimes winds."

May had little recourse than to feel spooked from the sudden development. It was clear from the reflected attack that they couldn't play it safe and outcamp Ho-Oh—which, unfortunately for her, meant they would have to get close. She froze in place, so hesitant to take her opponent head-on she began to shiver despite the overwhelming heatwave that had engulfed them.

It was a fear so strong that Evergreen could smell it from across the field. "You can't stand there forever, you know," he said, thoroughly enjoying the scent. "Eventually, you'll have to strike back! _Sacred Fire again, Ho-Oh!_ "

" _Dodge left, Pikachu!_ "

Her words might as well have bounced off thick walls, what with the massive amount of noise building up from the Ho-Oh's attack, yet Pikachu knew well enough to not make an attempt to tank it. Another large shockwave erupted from the fireball's point of impact, but fortunately, both Trainer and Pokémon were far enough away to not suffocate from the cloud of dust or be incinerated by the wall of heat.

"Give it another Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu was unsure whether or not trying something that nearly backfired a moment ago was wise, and he had half a mind to disobey May's order completely-perhaps instead to charge in with an Iron Tail or a Volt Tackle. However, he took it as a sign she simply wanted him to keep his distance. Not that it would do much if they were being sniped with what was essentially a tiny star, but even so, maybe the first time was just a fluke.

More quickly this time, he unleashed residual charge at his opponent so it could catch it unawares, slowly building up strength when he thought it hit its mark. But, again, it never did; not only did the bolt get reflected with another Extrasensory, it hit much closer, with embers from the thunderstrike barely grazing May's face and the electric potential forcing tiny strands of hair not held in place by her bandana to stand on end.

"Repeating the same move twice in a row? Far too predictable," Evergreen taunted. "Trap them with Fire Spin!"

Another wave of heat burst from Ho-Oh's mouth, then taking the form of an intimidating fire whirl. Its form, completely at the mercy of the updrafts and wind caused from the bird's hot aura, twisted and turned as it approached Pikachu and completely surrounded him. Panicked like the scared mouse he was, he could only stand in place and carefully eye the perimeter for any sort of opening he could slip through.

But there wasn't one. He was completely sealed off from the rest of the battlefield, the wall of flames too high to jump over and too hot to jump _through_ without taking serious damage. The stage had been, effectively, cut down to one-tenth of its size.

 _This is bad…_ May thought to herself, almost spitting through clenched teeth. _Pikachu's a sitting duck in there!_

And as the seconds went on, the flames constricted and limited Pikachu's already-scant space further. The panicked look in his eyes only deepened, and he had little recourse but to either futilely run around in circles or to stand in place and consign himself to inevitable third-degree burns.

May had begun to panic, too. She even considered consulting Ash, assuming she had the time—but the flames were closing in quick, and the fact that he was strangely silent throughout the whole battle thus far appeared to suggest that he had probably fallen unconscious against the wall. And, of course, there was an even more obvious matter to recollect: She was supposed to be protecting _him_. What kind of guardian could she be if she had to constantly lean on her dependent as if he were a crutch?

No, she had to depend on her own strength. She _had_ to, it being a matter of reality or as simply a matter of pride mattering not. And so, May's brain ran as fast and as hard as it could to find something, anything, that could be _some_ kind of solution. But, even so, as her synapses screamed along, only one coherent thought managed to pass through her mind like a broken record.

 _What would Ash do?_

Surely the answer lay there. He had gotten himself out of sticky situations more times than she could count, and that wasn't even including all the battles that she had seen herself. Each time involved thinking outside the box in some way—using some sort of unorthodox choice of move on some odd target and somehow turning it into an advantage.

She had to forget all her biases.

Forget all preconceptions of what was in front of her.

She had to _forget_.

As May cleared her mind, so, too, did the mental blocks holding her back slip away. Her fear had left her, and in its place was a calming zen, her focus acute. Images flashed through her eyes as she considered any sort of off-the-wall idea that she could conjure and predicted the outcome. One in particular stood out: Flames dying out from a torrent of water.

Without an easy access to Water-type attacks, or even time, it would have been rather difficult fulfilling that vision. Looking at the ground, however, perhaps she found the next best thing…

" _Pikachu!_ " she screamed at the top of her lungs. " _Slash at the ground with Iron Tail!_ "

He had little time to question her order, much less consider the outcome, but with his obedient instincts kicking in, he did as he was told. He focused energy into his tail until it flashed a grayish white, ran towards the rim of the wall of flame and unleashed a surge of strength toward the ground. A large cloud of dust and soil lifted into the air and impaired his vision before billowing back down. The heat of the flames, coupled with the dust particles, was choking, and he wanted to back away just as soon as he went in for even the slightest chance to feel cooler air.

But, oddly enough, after a couple seconds, some of the heat on his face began to dissipate. The flames that were flirting with his comfort zone had backed away, too-some, even, had disappeared completely.

And so Pikachu realized May's idea: The dirt and dust suffocated the flames and formed a firebreak.

He dashed through the opening in the fire, taking care to not get any residual dust in his eyes and lungs. As soon as he felt his fur fill with the soothing sensation of colder air, he took a gasp of oxygen and let the excess nerves flush through his system. He had escaped, and with nary a

scorch mark.

May jumped excitedly in celebration, which Pikachu mirrored, scarcely believing her quick thinking had worked so well. Perhaps Ash had been rubbing off on her, however much she considered it a shame that he wasn't awake to see it. Even so, it wasn't to last, as a moment later, her self-discipline—or was it, maybe, her survival instinct?—stayed her body from focusing too little on the enemy in front of them.

And so the battle had returned to a neutral state. Both sides took turns staring at each other, twitching their eyes waiting for their opponent to overcommit and make a mistake. May learned from hers, and so she elected to not make any sudden movements or to poke. This gave her some time to observe and consider her options, but she was none too happy with her lack of ideas.

 _If I try another Thunderbolt, he's just going to reflect it back at us_ , she thought. _Getting too close is also risky...but there's no way around it. If we want to win, we'll need to defeat that Ho-Oh, or to turn it against "Evergreen." To do that, we'll need to find that device and destroy it, just like the others._

The problem, though, was actually getting close enough to even think of destroying it. There was no telling what would happen: Getting fried with another Sacred Fire, but at point-blank range; getting thrown about like a ragdoll with Extrasensory… For all she knew, there was some other attack that he had not yet revealed. What if it could kill them all with a single hit?

 _And with Pikachu being the only target on the field, there's no way we'll get close enough without having to dodge hellfire left and right…_

Then it hit her. " _Only target"? That's it!_

All that time, she was operating under the assumption that the Battle Fortress, as cruel as it was, still operated under a series of rules, like any other Facility. For a good portion of the ascent, that was the case, despite the obvious loopholes. But now, she had to face what was essentially a brainwashed demigod, and this was after having to fight a brainwashed Ash and Charizard, too.

It was fair to say that there was no longer any point in playing fair. Evergreen didn't deserve it.

She reached for one of her own Poké Balls and threw it out into the field. " _Blaziken, take the stage!"_

A bright-orange humanoid shape materialized next to Pikachu, the white light from the ball melding with the hot flames and concocting a bright golden glow at their feet. Her evolved starter Pokémon had already entered her default battle stance, as though prepared to take up the call. She and Pikachu looked at each other for a moment and nodded in allegiance before turning to face their mutual foe. The solace in the fact he had backup forced a sigh of relief from Pikachu's lungs and a surge of electricity from his cheeks, renewed vigor incarnate.

Evergreen, realizing the breach in the implicit contract, shook his head in disapproval. "Resorting to a two-versus-one, huh? Can't say I didn't expect this, but I must say, it's still disappointing. Are you so incapable to face me _mano a mano_ that you so quickly fall back to a man advantage?"

So sayeth the man cowering behind his bodyguard, was what May wanted to spit back, had the scorching air not left her mouth dry—left unsaid, even, the lack of desire to give him the time of day.

Unable to read the room, or perhaps merely unwilling, he pressed on. "I mean, by all means, if you're going to go this far, why stop here? Why not summon the rest of your Pokémon if you're so determined to brute-force your way out?"

She was tempted to, but she knew it was a bad idea. It wasn't that she _couldn't_ send out Skitty or even Beautifly as well, and maybe for a moment it would have given her more of the strength she needed to breach through the wall of attacks—were it not for her refusal to think of her Pokémon as mere reserves.

Moreover, it was hard enough for her to control two Pokémon at once. _Twice_ that would be far beyond her ability to command in any organized manner. Ho-Oh would have certainly taken advantage of the sheer logistics required for her to order around four Pokémon simultaneously and possibly, even, take them down in one fell swoop.

She suspected that Evergreen was well aware of this fact, too, of course—and she wasn't going to fall for it.

Finally, he sighed when it was clear she wouldn't take the bait. "All right, then. Far be it for me to dictate your funeral when I'm just a simple griever."

Without giving her much time to respond, he commanded Ho-Oh to, once again, unleash another Sacred Fire at their position. As the attack wound up, May ordered both Pikachu and Blaziken to rush toward it but split up so as to not get picked off. With a puff of breath, they did what they were told and dashed ahead but took care, in the meanwhile, to maintain significant distance between each other.

The shot of flame eventually built up to its full strength and got launched forward. Ho-Oh—or, rather, the one controlling it—couldn't be sure which was to be the main target if it couldn't get both, so instead of aiming for one opponent in particular, it instead thought it better to aim it directly in the space between them and let the ensuing explosion take care of the rest. The fireball, lobbed from its beak at a mortar-like speed, hit the ground at the intended spot. A bright flash of light and a loud _BANG_ crashed into existence as expected at the point of impact.

Only two things remained after the blast: Blaziken and a miniature mushroom cloud, the latter of which dissipated not long after and the former of which was far enough away to take minimal splash damage. Pikachu, on the other hand, was too close to the blast and had been launched sideways. May had feared for a moment after the lack of movement that he had been defeated in one shot like Eevee had been before, but after he shook off the dust in his coat and spat out the soil that he had swallowed, she wiped the nervous sweat from her brow and continued breathing.

Since they were okay, May felt it was high time to get back on the offensive. "Blaziken, use Flamethrower!"

She could almost hear Evergreen chuckling in her ear. "Choosing a Fire-type attack against a Fire-type opponent? What an amateur," she imagined him say to her. She knew that it wasn't type advantageous, especially with the Extrasensory ushering the flames away in an arc back towards its caster.

It mattered little to her regardless, because dealing damage wasn't her goal.

"And now, Pikachu, go in for a Volt Tackle!"

Pikachu was eager, perhaps a tad too eager, to comply. His rage bubbled into a flare of sparks that completely enveloped his being. He dashed faster and faster through the floating embers, his paws beginning to burn from the rising friction.

" _Pikapikapikapikapikapika—!"_

The Ho-Oh was still reeling from the recoil and the empty sensation of sapped strength, too distracted to notice the yellow meteor hurling straight at it from below. With a strong kick, Pikachu leapt off the ground and let his momentum carry him upward like a speeding car flying off a ramp. He cruised skyward at a speed not unlike that of a kite caught in a gale, and soon, the only visible light to those on the ground was a golden ray careening closer and closer to the large bird.

The collision that mattered followed not long after.

Electricity surged through both combatants at an intensity that rivaled that of a sunrise or a violent storm. Either through momentum or electromagnetism, both Pokémon stayed suspended in the air as the energy released outward and struck almost anything in sight. May took a few steps back in fear that she would have been struck by a stray bolt herself if she wasn't careful, as well as to help keep her from being blinded by the flash.

Soon, the neon sign that was the Ho-Oh faded to nothing, and then the only light left was the odd ember from Blaziken's redirected Flamethrower that still hadn't been extinguished. Both it and Pikachu were still in the air, as though time had stopped. May let out a few gasps of air when she realized that she had, once again, been holding her breath in anticipation—the only evidence she had that the clock was, in fact, still ticking.

But then from a distance, she heard a faint, " _Pika…"_ followed by a small yellow body falling to the ground like a stuffed animal. May's heart sank, and she could no longer regain her breath.

She called out to him with the little air she had left in her lungs, not caring if the gesture was futile or not—although, evidently, it had been, as Pikachu's body eventually hit the mix of dust and glass in a heap, unmoving.

"No, Pikachu…!" she whispered, the unsettling feeling of despair closing in around her. It was short-lived, fortunately, when she saw his tiny form begin to stir, slow as it was. Dust and soot accumulated onto his fur after the impact and evoked the peculiar impression that he had been thrown through a volcanic eruption in progress, but besides that, he pushed himself up like nothing had happened.

At least, that's what she would have said to herself, were it not for his swaying and missed step, forcing him onto the ground once more.

The attack had to have done more damage than she had anticipated, she thought to herself. It was a risky move, to be sure, but little did she think that it would have done more damage to him than to the Ho-Oh. The latter, incidentally, was barely fazed; its eyes were still hollow and devoid of any semblance of agency, but there had been no sign of weakness, either.

May growled in frustration. "It's like we didn't even put a dent in him. Now what can we do?"

Throwing out another Volt Tackle would have been a very dodgy choice, for obvious reasons. Not only would it have been another textbook example of telegraphing on her part, there was no telling if Pikachu could even use another one without taking serious damage or fainting altogether.

Evergreen seized the opportunity to quip over her grumbles. "What can you do, indeed? If that's all the ideas you have left, then maybe you should take my advice after all. Go ahead. Just send out another one of your Pokémon."

May paused for a moment to apprehensively reconsider his offer. She still wasn't any more confident that she could command more than two Pokémon at a time, but the lack of firepower on her side was undeniable. She instinctively reached for her Beautifly's Poké Ball and almost began a throwing motion to bring her out to the field, but her discipline caught her at the last second.

 _No. I'm not going to fall for his tricks_.

She shook her head to shake off the feeling of temptation and revisited her strategy while giving Blaziken a command to dodge to the right to avoid a supereffective Extrasensory. She soon came to the conclusion that, if she wanted to get to the device controlling the Ho-Oh, like with Charizard before, it was only a matter of getting around to the back of its neck. The only question that remained was how she'd even be able to close the distance safely enough to get a clear shot.

And then she got an idea—a crazy idea.

"Blaziken, use Blaze Kick on Pikachu! Pikachu, run between Ho-Oh and Blaziken and use Iron Tail on the Blaze Kick!"

Both Pokémon simply gawked at her with their mouths ajar. Their opponent was just as nonplussed, to the point where the mere suggestion elicited laughter that was audible across the field. May held firm, however, and confidently repeated herself.

The two Pokémon looked at each other hesitantly, but their fears were slightly relieved from the force of her determination. Blaziken, as instructed, built up a strong flame in her leg, while Pikachu, though reluctant, rushed at it with as much speed as he himself could gain, all the while building a charge in his tail in kind. When the two were within a couple meters of each other, Pikachu lunged and twisted around to maximize the torque in his tail, while a hot gust of wind blasted outward as Blaziken unleashed her attack.

It was though a loud gong had been struck, and the sound reverberated in May's ears and shook the loose shards of glass beneath her feet. The low, bass-filled note hung in the air and started spawning a headache; and so she brought her hands to her temples to try to numb the pain or to at least distract her from it so she could concentrate on the yellow blur headed straight for the Ho-Oh.

It was somewhat hard to see—not much different than if a baseball were flying out of a ballpark—but it looked like it was working. Pikachu was flying straight for Ho-Oh's chest at a breakneck speed. Evergreen, as observant as he was, noticed the gambit and commanded the Pokémon to release yet another Extrasensory.

Just as planned.

"Now, Blaziken, use Flamethrower on Ho-Oh!"

A stream of fire shot out of Blaziken's beak once more, and then Evergreen realized he had been looking down not one but two gun barrels, both of which had fired at roughly a couple seconds apart. And so, there was but a moment to make a decision: Would it use Extrasensory on Pikachu? Or the Flamethrower?

The former was closer, but the latter was traveling at twice the speed and at its eyes, all but assuring that both would hit it simultaneously if swift action wasn't taken. It figured the Flamethrower would have done more damage to such a sensitive area or unnecessarily cripple its senses than an electric mouse would, so there wasn't much to its calculus beyond redirecting the shot of flame away from its head at any cost.

A purple aura enveloped the attack and safely guided it to the side, where it harmlessly struck a wall. In exchange, Ho-Oh had to completely ignore Pikachu, who landed in its chest feathers and grappled on for dear life. Little time did he have to even make sure that he had a solid grip, and as envious as he was of himself in any alternate reality where it didn't feel like the rainbow-esque down was going to slip through his paws, he had to crawl as quickly as he could up to its neck just the same.

After a few seconds, Pikachu wrapped himself around onto its back much like he did with Charizard minutes before, and sure enough, the immediately recognizable hairclip-like device stared at him dead in the face. This was his chance; he didn't bother spending precious time to hear May's command before acting, since it was all too likely that the rest of the strategy was the same as before anyway.

He continued crawling up to the device, charged up energy in his tail, and then swung down with all his might onto the dark metal. This device was just as brittle as the last, as it easily disintegrated with an oddly satisfying _crunch_. Shards of metal and wire rolled down the bird's plumes before gently landing in the sand below. But something was different this time: Instead of plopping onto the ground, sound asleep, Ho-Oh screeched in pain, its vision dimming but, nevertheless, no less enraged and focused on them.

Perhaps it would have been too much to expect a Pokémon like Ho-Oh to succumb so easily to mental exhaustion after being under the influence of such a device like the others. May certainly didn't expect the contrary herself. She had hoped and even anticipated that the battle would have ended then and there so she could finally answer the call of her body screaming at her for rest and relaxation. Plus, after all, worse than a mind-controlled demigod attacking them was one that was engulfed in fury.

Fortunately, it was still reeling from the realization of what exactly had happened, and May still had one more trick up her sleeve. It was finally time to give that particular move a test drive.

Before Ho-Oh got its bearings again, she ordered Pikachu to jump off and get out of the way before putting her attention back to her own Pokémon. " _And now, Blaziken, finish it off with Blast Burn!"_ And then, all she could do was cross her fingers as she saw a familiar sight unfold in front of her and see if the end result would diverge from the last.

Blaziken's mouth opened, and in the empty space had a white-hot ball of bright-orange flames begun to form. It grew and grew until it was the size of a gumball, and then the size of a Poké Ball, until, finally, it was the size of a volleyball. Her head lurched forward not dissimilar to a shotgun recoiling in reverse, and the ball of flame shot forward like a bullet of steel-melting plasma, once again toward the Ho-Oh's eyes.

In the split second between the shot and the impact, a part of May twinged in fear that it would peter out before it reached its target, like it had the last time she had seen Blaziken attempt to use the move, but to her eventual relief, it never did. Fear turned to panic turned to ecstacy when a hot blast of bright red flashed in front of her where Ho-Oh had lingered. The smell of sulfur filled the air to mix with the amalgam of embers and burning feathers, and the screech of an avian monster that had lost its will to remain standing pierced her ears.

Soon, the embers and feathers were replaced with a whirlwind of dust, as the Pokémon had landed face-first into the ground. She and Blaziken covered their mouths in a futile effort to keep their throats clear, taking the moment to cough and breathe whatever little clean air was left around them while they waited for the dust to settle. The intimidating Ho-Oh brimming with bellicose energy had become, in its place, a disheveled, unconscious beast—feathers scorched and ruffled, eyes clamped shut, and breathing the only sign of movement.

From there, it was clear: It had been defeated.

The moment she realized that they were all still alive and no longer in peril of roasting on a spit felt almost like an eternity for her. The feeling was odd yet similar enough to the sensation of adrenaline beginning to drain from one's system after an obvious danger had passed. Her fingers were tingling, her breath had shortened, and dizziness nearly brought her to her knees. The particulars weren't exactly pleasant, but she figured that it was probably far preferable to the alternative.

"Is everyone okay?" she eventually asked as soon as she was sure the dizziness wouldn't turn to nausea. Blaziken answered in the affirmative immediately, somewhat exhausted in the aftermath of the Blast Burn but otherwise still fighting fit. Pikachu, besides his fur being slightly singed from the splash damage before, was in a similar state, and he happily chimed in response, as well.

From the other side, a man had been looking down at what seemed to him a pitiful sight and shook his head in disgust at the camaraderie—but was, at the same time, partially impressed with her performance. She, a girl who fancied herself only in style and was, charitably speaking, an also-ran in the art of Pokémon combat, had bested _him_. His plan was _ruined_ because of this girl's tenacity.

Well, no, not just that. She did have help from a motley band of friends and ne'er-do-wells alike. Especially regarding the latter, perhaps he was too hasty in his anger to discharge three longtime members from his ranks. Had he stayed his hand but a moment, she would have been a group short from reaching the facility's summit. Alas, in the end, he only had himself to blame. One could say, then, from a certain point of view, the only one to have truly dismantled his ambitions was the man in the suit all along.

"Congratulations, May," he said over the cheering and patting of backs, his spirit defeated. "Surely, you are the true Champion of the Battle Fortress."

May took a moment to stop herself from celebrating to address Evergreen properly. From where she was standing, he looked anything but the unhinged man from before. The uncontrollable rage and lack of decorum that brought her fear and anxiety had withered into what seemed like apathy, and it was that impression that had given her pause. "So, is that it? It's over?"

"It's over," he replied, his voice low and weary.

"No strings attached?"

"None whatsoever."

May let out what must have been her twelfth sigh of relief that day, with Blaziken and Pikachu following suit. It seemed like a far-off dream where she could just rest and not have to worry about anything and simply leave the heroics to others. The glimmer of light at the end of that long, dark tunnel filled with near-death was almost bright enough to bring a tear to her eye.

"So, then," May said after realizing she had dwelled on the idea of beaches and bedrest for so long that she feared Evergreen was about to topple over and fall asleep, "what now? Are you going to run away?"

He thought about it for a moment. He admittedly hadn't given it much thought before, let alone prepare for the possibility he would have been on the receiving end of a defeat. The very idea just seemed asinine to him, like a rifleman losing to a man armed with only his fists. But these were truly extraordinary circumstances, and with all of his other options exhausted, there was little recourse he could take.

"I _could_ do that," he finally said after about a minute of pondering. "I have the resources to quit while I'm ahead and spend the rest of my days inoffensively, out of the public eye. If I wanted, I could spend the rest of my days on an island somewhere and lay low until Team Rocket rose to global influence once again.

"But I'm not going to do that," he revealed, prompting a gasp of surprise from the others. "Do you know the reality of the legally-gray world, May?"

She shook her head, not quite understanding where he was headed.

"Not surprising, considering your meager age. Young people seem to cling to the fantasy that organizations like Team Rocket rise out of a vacuum—that unscrupulous men and women get together as if to say, 'Hello, friends and neighbors, let us do evil together!'—without realizing that half of the work done comes in the form of forming relationships and favors outside of the organization. Each member rises and falls depending on the value and goodwill they contribute.

"And that willingness to do favors for another is like a special currency. To do all of what you've seen, I had to spend so much of it that no doubt that the entire Kanto region knows about what's transpired here and the failure to get any results. And so, all that goodwill we've amassed has now run dry."

May jolted when she felt herself begin to succumb to her exhaustion and nod off from Evergreen's sob story. _Get to the point, man…_ she thought, trying to tap her foot to keep herself awake.

"Your actions this week have made us high profile, and surely no longer will key figures risk working with us by proxy without their own reputations falling from the heightened scrutiny. In fact, perhaps their reputations are already doomed. Expect corporations to fall, politicians to be recalled, private citizens to be arrested, and the authorities to comb the earth for those directly responsible. And all because of what you did."

May rolled her eyes. She couldn't give much of a damn of what misfortune would fall upon those people after they themselves gave so little of it to others. Shouldering the blame was almost a badge of honor she wished she could cut out and paste onto her ribbon case.

"So to answer your question, no, I won't run—because there's nowhere _to_ run now, and I refuse to live as a fugitive." Feeling his story complete, and knowing that more of an explanation would only put May to sleep, he took out what she guessed to be the same remote control device from before and pressed another button. A loud buzzer immediately filled the room, startling May and waking her up instantly, but all that resulted from it was the low guttural rumble from the doors opening from behind.

Alert, she spun around once again to face the Team Rocket leader, concerned. "Don't you worry yourself," Evergreen assured her. "I figured you just want to see your comrades again."

The gesture surprised May, honestly, but she wasn't going to complain or question it, given his recent speech. In her haste, she almost turned back around and dashed out the door to meet her companions midway, but she stopped herself when she realized that she still couldn't quite trust Evergreen's intentions. For all she knew, he was just trying to lull her into a false sense of security, only to escape with her eyes turned away.

So, in lieu of rushing out, she resolved herself to stay. It would only be a few more moments. She could wait. And fortunately, she didn't have to wait long: Mere minutes after the door had opened did she pick up the faint, distant sound of footsteps clanking on metal, which grew louder and louder until, finally, she could make out the visage of Greta and Anabel rising from below. Anabel's face brightened—Greta's face, relieved—when the two made eye contact for what felt like weeks.

Their jaws dropped, amusingly enough from May's perspective, when they saw the heaping mass of the unconscious Ho-Oh behind lying behind her.

"Oish, what happened here?" Greta exclaimed with wide eyes. "Did we miss a clash of titans here or what?"

"I could say the same about you guys," May responded between fits of laughter. "How'd it go in there?"

"We thrashed 'em!" Greta exclaimed, sending her fist into her palm through a manic grin. "Serves that prissy fop right, I say."

"You mean _after_ you ran up to him and punched him in the face when he knocked out your last Pokémon, right?" Anabel asked wryly.

"S-shut up, Annie!" she cried in protest, her face flushed with embarrassment. "He still deserved it!"

May's fits of laughter continued as the other girls bickered playfully amongst themselves. It was almost like they never left—or, rather, like _she_ never left. As much as she wanted to enjoy their company after such a grueling fight, however, she knew they had to get back on track. "So where are Tucker and Brandon, anyway?"

Anabel took a moment to ignore the objections of her colleague to turn her attention to May. "So, after we did win, we figured it would have been better if we could keep an eye on them to make sure they didn't get away. Tucker was already out cold, needless to say"—Greta, still clearly proud of herself, snickered loudly, which Anabel ignored—"but after the doors opened up, we took it upon ourselves to simply knock Brandon out, too. They're still on the floor below us, sleeping like babies."

Well, cool, May thought to herself. That was one less thing for her to worry about but still left a handful of others. "Have you seen everyone else?"

Anabel shook her head. "We wanted to make sure you were okay first." Sensing that the other girl was becoming consumed with worry, she smiled and gave her an assuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it, though. I'm sure the others made it out fine, as well."

"Yeah, May, don't sweat it!" said a high-pitched, girly voice behind them, and soon afterward, the forms of both Brock and Cyndi ascended the stairs and rushed up to greet them.

"Brock, Cyndi, you're all right!" May exclaimed, trying as hard as she could not to tackle them with a hug.

Just as enthusiastic, Brock gave her a supportive thumbs-up. "Of course we are. We weren't going to go down without a fight." After he gave his justification for staying behind, May had honestly feared that him going down was a not-too-remote possibility, regardless of his post hoc assurances to the contrary. "It was a close, tough match; but we won out in the end."

"She was so crazy she was sloppy," Cyndi chimed in. "You had that battle in the bag!"

He laughed, still somewhat at his own expense despite the praise. "Fair enough. But I'm sure she still would have done better if she were in a better mental state. Fact is, that battle must've been the straw that broke the camel's back, since she just fell to her knees in silence after we landed the final blow."

"Oh, is Lucy still there now?" May asked.

"Probably. She didn't move an inch afterward, let alone say a word."

"I wanted to knock the lights out of her myself after Brock won just to keep her from running away," the younger girl added, "but Brock said _nooo_. It's stupid..." May had to respect her tenacity, but she was glad that Brock was there to put a check on it before things got even more out of hand.

And then, another voice followed: "What's stupid? No one's preparing for trouble without us, are they?"

And then a second: "If they are, we'll just go ahead and make it double."

May's eyes widened as the sight of three more figures walked up the stairs to greet them, and she couldn't help but smile as if to say, "Typical," but she didn't have the heart to vocalize it and could only giggle and extend her feelings of relief of their well-being.

"Of course we're okay!" Meowth said with high spirits. "You didn't think we'd have had our hams handed to us by that painful pair of palookas, did ya?"

May was impressed. "So you won?" The thought was so surprising that she was honestly a little bit sad that she wasn't able to see it.

"We came, we saw, we conquered!" James answered with a determined fist pump.

Jessie followed with a mirrored fist bump of her own. "And we had a lead so commanding it left them speechless versus our expert strategy and sharp wit!"

"Uh, Jess, all you did was call Cassidy's hair a greasy wig."

She stomped her feet in protest. "Oh, be quiet, James! I've waited _eleven years_ to beat her and say that to her face, and you're not going to ruin this moment for me!"

May was about to try to change the subject when she realized that Meowth had slipped behind them and exclaimed, " _Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone! What happened here!?_ "

Everyone turned their attention to the aftermath of the battle against Evergreen and marveled at the shattered glass littering the floor and the still-unconscious Ho-Oh lying at the end.

"Did the Twoipette actually punch out a Legendary Pokémon by herself!? What kind of power have you been hiding all this time?"

May didn't really have the confidence to answer that question, especially since it wasn't just her Pokémon that did the job. So, all she could really do was give a modest shrug and say nothing, leaving it up to the others' imagination of whether or not her girlish charm had, in fact, belied the force of a typhoon.

"And, wait a moment," James said, "If the Twerpette's here, where's the Twerp?"

Everyone looked around for a moment before spotting what looked to be Ash's corpse lying in the corner a ways from the field of glass and scorch marks and rushed over to him, dreading the worst. May had assured the others that, no, he wasn't dead and was actually just in a deep sleep, but the rest still saw fit to check his pulse just to make sure. And sure enough, he was still resting soundly, if somewhat pained.

Anabel and Cyndi caught onto his condition especially quickly. "These symptoms look familiar," said the former. "Was he being controlled psychically?"

"Surely you know the answer to that one, Anabel," Evergreen's voice said from behind them, spurring everyone to defensively spin on a dime and, in Greta's case, enter a defensive stance. "Don't look so surprised. I'm still here."

"Boss!" the Team Rocket Trio shouted in surprise. It wasn't often that they got to see him face to face without any sort of screen protecting them from his wrath, although their surprise didn't connote a feeling of fear or even sympathy. Instead, it surprised the others to see, the sight of him had saddened them or inflamed what was a once-dormant feeling of frustration. And now, in the brighter lighting, they could see him for what he really was—a man who had given up on them and the rest of Team Rocket, and their scorn was all-too apparent to the rest.

"Buffoons," he addressed in kind with a scowl. "It certainly is bittersweet, seeing you again."

The glares from the trio didn't cease, and Meowth was having a difficult time staying his claw from ruining his suit. They turned their backs on him as if to clear from their minds the image of the man who had sacked them and the feeling of conflict in their hearts that coaxed them back to his side.

"You refuse even to give me the time of day? You wound me."

"You insult _us_ for thinking we'd give it to you after what you did to us!" Meowth snarled with a ferocity that took even Jessie and James aback, although they still looked away. "Sorry to boist your bubble, _sir_ , but I, for one, refuse to crawl back to you!"

"Is that so? And you think you have a place with _them_? The ones you've been harrassing for years at my behest?"

Meowth faltered, unsure himself. He was right that they probably had nowhere to go outside of Team Rocket. There was probably little chance the Twerps would let them tag along after all that's happened over the years, let alone just in the past week or so, and the thought of living as wanderers was hardly a pleasant one. Perhaps it was their lot in life to perpetually belong nowhere.

"They do," May countered over the feeling of doubt that had clouded the trio. They turned to face her, and she had to admit that the resolve to defend them sort of came out of nowhere. "Okay, yes, they did do horrible things to us and many other people in the past. Yes, they spent most of their careers failing to catch Pikachu. And yes, they did almost kill me…"

"Okay, Twerpette, we get the picture…" Jessie said under her breath, but May ignored her.

"But if the past couple days have told me anything, it's that they're determined to turn over a new leaf. Why should I deny them that opportunity if they truly want to change?"

"And what makes you think they're even telling the truth? You'd take former employees of mine at their word? Especially when they've betrayed you before?"

"I mean, he's got a point…" James whispered to himself, only for Jessie to smack him in the back of the head in irritation. May, once again, ignored them.

"Maybe you're right. But maybe you're wrong, too. The way I see it, they'll be less likely to go back to a life of crime if they at least have support from people they know. So I'll take that risk. If I'm right, then that means there are three fewer people working for _you_."

Evergreen said nothing in response. Little on his face indicated whether or not he truly had nothing left to say or if he simply just didn't care enough to continue. Regardless, having the opportunity to shut his smug attitude down was a simple enough pleasure to partake in, and the effect that it had on the (former) Team Rocket trio couldn't be denied. Tears flowed down their cheeks as they sobbed, touched at May's compassion.

" _Oh, Twerpette!"_ they cheered in unison, the waterworks practically spraying everywhere. " _How can we ever repay youuuuuuu?"_

May was about to playfully answer with something cheeky like, oh, say, a million bucks and then laugh at their inevitable panicked shock; but before she could, she was interrupted by the sound of stirring behind her. Her heart began beating faster when she spun around to see Ash turning himself onto his back and staring up at the ceiling, eyes half open.

"Ash, you're awake!" she exclaimed, rushing over to him to offer her hand. "Can you get up this time?"

"Y-yeah, I think so." He took her hand with a smile and jolted up to his feet. Like before, he had trouble keeping his balance, but fortunately, May was there to give him physical support, which he certainly wasn't going to object to. He enjoyed the softness of her touch, perhaps a little too much, because after a while, an impatient cough from one of the others—most likely Cyndi—snapped him out of the fantasy that the two were the only ones left in the room.

"Oh, everyone!" he said in embarrassed surprise. "When did you get here?"

"Not too long ago," Brock replied, happy to see that he was okay. "Welcome back, bud."

Ash did his best to flash another one of his smiles back at him, but it was cut short when a migraine flash struck him in the head like a rock. He held his hand up to his temple and cried in pain, almost forgetting once more that anybody else was even there.

Anabel took the opportunity to rush to his side and place her hand on his forehead. It was cool and sweaty, doubtless due to the heat from the previous battle. It also confirmed her previous suspicions that he was mind controlled recently, and the symptoms that resulted from it were all-too apparent.

"Just as I thought," she said out loud. "You're going to need plenty of rest, Ash."

"Yeah, I guess so," he agreed. The pain from that particular headache attack didn't last too long that time, to his delight, but almost like clockwork, a low grumble came from his stomach, which he cupped gingerly with a reddened face.

"Heh, I guess I'm a little hungry, too."

"Then we'll be sure to give you a meal fit for a king. But until then..." May said, followed soon after by letting go of Ash's hand and playfully pushing him away from her, to his confusion. "Let's make our way back to the Pokémon Center—because you _reek_."

* * *

 **Holy crud, the final battle is finally over! Huzzah! I honestly can't believe we've finally gotten this far after all these years. Very soon, we'll get freakin' closure already, and it only took about three generations of _Pokémon_** **(four, if you include _Sword_ and _Shield_ this year) ****to get there!**

 **Now, assuming there's no epilogue, expect Chapter 41 to be the final chapter in the whole saga. There are a few loose ends to tie up that I'd like to see if I can take a wild stab at resolving, and from there, there's the sweet, sweet character interactions that we've been starved for, for the past decade. So, the final chapter may take a while to get right, but at least it won't be due to another battle. Rest assured that I am _done_ writing battles for this.**

 **We're in the home stretch, guys. Stay tuned for what is most likely going to be the final chapter. Until then, get** **_Pokémon_!**


	5. 41: To Pick a Brain!

**Hey, everyone! Happy Advanceshipping Week 2019!**

 **It's been a good few months since the last update, hasn't it? Sorry 'bout that.** ** _Three Houses_** **and** ** _Civilization VI_** **certainly didn't help much in the updating department, but honestly, that's an excuse at this point. The largest problem with this chapter is that there were just so many loose ends that I wanted to clear up that it took a while to get right.**

 **On top of that, there was a glaring issue pointed out by one of the readers (thanks much for your insight, H-Man89995!) that I at least wanted to try to remedy before concluding the story. In my zeal, however, everything culminated in to what I could only say was probably the longest chapter I ever wrote, ever. As in, over 18,000 words' worth.**

 **Well.**

 **Obviously, that would be hell for readers who may not want to spend five years reading something that should have concluded eleven years ago, so what I've done is split the final chapter into two parts, essentially; today, you'll get Chapter 41, and in a few days, you'll get the absolute last chapter, which broke off from the larger whole. I imagine this may be frustrating for those who were expecting this to be the last one, but I assure you, the end is in sight! Everything's already written, so you won't have to wait long for the next one.**

 **Without further ado, let's continue with the first part of that huge monolith.**

* * *

It didn't take long for all that happened after meeting up with everyone after the final battle to become a blur for May, or at least relatively speaking for something that should have been one of the defining events of her life. After all the life and death struggles and the resulting adrenaline rush wearing off, knowing the danger had passed, she became just so _sleepy_ ; just the sight of a dark corner in the room gave her the near-insatiable desire to crawl over and take a nap.

Still, there was to be no rest for the weary, as the group reasoned that it would likely be best if they kept their undivided eye on Evergreen's actions—or, rather, Giovanni's, as May came to learn—while they waited for help to arrive. Actually calling for help was an ordeal in and of itself; very few usable means of communication even existed in the facility, despite how high-tech its infrastructure suggested. All outbound lines stayed solely within the network, so regular contact with police or anyone in the outside world, really, was impossible.

In the end, Greta suggested they settle for using one of the Brains' comm devices and tune it to to a more open channel—after explicitly unblocking Scott's signal, that is. Never much of a mind for technology, May went ahead and left her to fiddle with it while she and the others considered what to do about transportation.

Jessie, James, and Meowth went outside to check on the Wobbuffet balloon they'd all left before entering the facility. After a few minutes, they returned with empty palms and exasperated faces. Someone, likely one of Giovanni's henchmen, had made off with or simply destroyed their ride out of there, and with that balloon being their last spare, it was clear they were all stranded until they managed to contact someone.

It was probably for the best, May thought to herself. Considering how tightly-packed that basket was for the storming party alone, there was no way they'd manage to fit Ash and the bound-and-gagged Giovanni, Brandon, Tucker, Lucy, Cassidy, and Butch as passengers in the basket—and that was without even mentioning the possibility that it wouldn't have supported everyone's combined weight to begin with.

But for her, personally, the less she thought about having to spend yet another few hours standing in an awkward position that cramped her knees, the better.

With nothing much to do besides keep an eye on their captive, everyone gave up thinking of a way off the island in the meantime. Plus, it was a good opportunity for them to lick their wounds from the past hour, chew the fat, and just kill time while Greta and Anabel fiddled with their comm devices.

The next few minutes was quite banal: People talking about this and that, glancing to the side as if to make sure that Giovanni hadn't broken out of his bindings and snuck out under their noses and taking the time to investigate the unconscious Ho-Oh up close—at least until May figured that it would have been safer just to find whatever Poké Ball it had been captured with and recall it, just in case it woke up. She didn't have to search far for it, as an unusual yellow-and-black ball was the only thing even on his person, and testing to make sure it was the right one was a trivial matter. Before long, the giant bird was gone, and the others could turn back to their conversations as though nothing was even there.

It also wasn't long before Greta suddenly started hopping for joy and celebrating. " _Yes!_ I got a hold of Scott!"

Like Carvanha having caught a whiff of blood in the water, everyone immediately swarmed together and looked at her expectantly. A few even clamored to talk into her mic in the hopes of their voices somehow being able to breach the opaque barrier that was called the mute button. Annoyed and clutching her ear to block the excess noise, she shooed away the others and continued speaking to the other interlocutor.

In her boredom, however, May felt like being a little cheeky despite Greta's obvious discomfort with the lack of personal space and danced around her to get close enough to listen in on the call. It was a little tricky to even discern where the sound would come from, but it soon became evident enough that the source was some sort of earpiece.

" _Did you have fun storming the castle?"_ said a cool voice that was barely audible enough for her to hear. She got a bit closer, but then Greta caught onto what she was doing and took a couple steps away to make space, eliciting a pout from the other.

"Yeah, something like that," Greta replied shortly. Her response was subdued and had the faint scent of reluctance sprinkled about. Perhaps it was to be expected that any one-on-one conversation between the two would be awkward, considering what recent events had transpired. "Listen, we need a ride. Some goon made off with our balloon."

There was a beat of time where Greta listened to Scott's response. What it was, though, May was unable to tell through context alone.

"Yeah, that would be great, thanks. Yep, I'll let everyone know. Goodbye."

And then Greta's talking ceased. She turned to face the others, a look of annoyance plastered in her eyes to contrast the earnest, hopeful looks the others had in theirs. "So, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"I vote 'bad,'" James chimed in with a raised hand, backing down a bit when Jessie and Meowth gave him a sign of disapproval.

Not really caring either way, Greta went ahead and followed James's suggestion. "So, the bad news, then: By the looks of things, we'll be stranded here on the island for a little while, unless we can somehow figure out how to get the Battle Pyramid undocked from the Battle Fortress before then."

Groans filled the area, with some holding their heads in their hands in frustration.

"But the good news: Scott said he'd be able to work with the authorities on One Island to get a hold of a boat and some officers to apprehend the boss man here and the others we just fought."

The groans, having died down a bit, were then supplanted by ambivalent light cheering. For most of them, the expectation of waiting didn't inspire much morale and only became worse when Brock, curious as to how long they should grow accustomed to playing watchdog for a yakuza, inquired for the ETA.

"Three hours, at least," she answered, inciting more groans and, on Jessie's part, overdramatic fainting.

May, for her part, was rather silent, if only for her dread of having to wait rendering her speechless. It always felt like there was a light at the end of the tunnel, only for her to realize that it was only because the tunnel itself was so deep 6and dark. With all those setbacks in such quick succession, she had already begun to grow doubtful that the end would ever come. Maybe there was another global threat that would keep her and Ash away from each other as soon as they stepped foot outside the facility, for all she knew. Despite this, knowing her luck, she figured they'd ultimately get out unscathed, especially after all the other dangerous situations they got out of before, but she just wanted it all to just _stop_ already.

On the other hand, simply waiting for help to arrive was still quite trivial in comparison. Sure, the lack of stimulation in a dull and dreary, battle-wrecked battlefield/research facility combo made sitting and discussing nothing in particular more mentally taxing than it normally would; but at least they could spend their time lazing about without being in any real danger.

Such was the idea, at least. Eventually, though not soon enough, an hour passed, and then two. As they tapped into whatever patience they had left, their nervous energy had eventually reached a boiling point. Jessie and James, hunger setting in, had started bickering about nothing in particular; Cyndi got bored and chased a particularly non-consenting Meowth around in a "game of tag"; and Happiny simply watched in amusement. The others tried to calm everyone else down, but with limited success. It soon became obvious that all they could do was wait and pray that their saviors hadn't forgotten them already.

After three hours, though, everyone's ears perked up when Greta suddenly dropped the conversation she was having with Anabel, rose to her feet, and turned away from the group with a finger in her ear. Everyone else, despite their weariness and pessimism, still looked to her with wide eyes and bated breath. After a couple seconds, she gave the all-clear with a grin and a thumbs up. "Guys, I think they're here!"

The ensuing collective sigh of relief was as the sound of divers gasping for air after what felt like an eternity under the waves. Without a moment to waste, they picked themselves up off the ground, stretched, and celebrated with a couple jigs; and before long, they were met with a number of armed officers accompanied by Growlithes, seemingly lead by what looked to be Officer Jenny. It took all of May's willpower to keep Brock's romantic impulses at bay, and she was left wondering what would give out first—her fingers, or his ear.

The group lead the officers to the disgraced Team Rocket leader still sitting patiently on the ground with his limbs bound. Jenny, ever ecstatic to be the one to catch such an infamous target, unbound his hands, only to immediately cuff them. "I can't say I ever thought I'd see the day when you of all people were finally in police custody," she mused aloud, to which Giovanni silently spat in annoyance as he was dragged away.

The marvel of the sight, as satisfying as it was, was undermined, however, when May felt a cold clasp snap around her own wrists and was just as shocked to see everyone else seemingly being put into handcuffs, as well. The officer cuffing her, well aware of her sudden onset of anxiety, made sure to alleviate her concerns. "Don't worry," he said, "we just want to ask all of you a few questions when we return to One Island."

The comment did little to make her feel better, honestly, but what was she supposed to do? Resist arrest? Somewhat humiliated by the situation, she sighed and desperately prayed to whatever deity could hear her, _Will this never end?_

The others didn't fare much better than she did. Greta and Anabel were just as startled but, upon closer inspection, didn't seem to look as surprised; the Team Rocket Trio were panicked out of their wits but still bit the bullet and complied with their order to move; and Cyndi had to be talked out of simply running away in a terrified scream by a much more composed Brock. Ash simply didn't have the wherewithal to resist and so went along with what he was told—of course, for someone on the verge of sleep, he might as well have been a marionnette with a snoring problem.

The group were promptly escorted down the series of stairs and back out of the building. The sun hung directly overhead, its rays mingling uncomfortably with the high humidity and lack of a breeze but was otherwise rather pleasant. It was probably just past noon, May thought to herself as she and the others were herded into motorboats seemingly outfitted for police use. As directed, she sat next to Ash and Brock onto the uncomfortable wooden seats and waited patiently for the rest of the group to be seated.

When the officers were also seated, Jenny raised her hand to signal her intent to speak. "All right, everyone," she began with a sharp tone, "I know you probably have a bunch of questions to ask, but I promise you that we will get you all processed as soon as you can. Our final stop is the Pokémon Center on One Island, where we intend to take you in for questioning about what has been going around the Sevii Islands lately. Plus, you and your Pokémon likely require rest and nourishment after today, so you'll be able to take care of that when we're done, as well."

May could hear gulps coming from Jessie, James, and Meowth; but Jenny didn't seem to take notice.

"It'll probably be a couple hours or so before we get there, so hang tight. And please, take care to keep your arms inside the boat at all times. You know, just use common sense." With that, she turned around to sit down and commanded the other officer at the helm to move ahead standard.

May felt herself lurch backward from the sudden start and so held tight onto her seat to keep herself from toppling into the person sitting behind her, who just so happened to be Greta. She thought she could hear others not being so quick on their feet, indicated by the _oof_ s that normally would follow a collision with another, but she didn't think it very wise to look behind her to check when she was barely able to get a grip looking straight ahead. Not to mention that the situation left her stiff and wishing she could turn invisible just so it could be over already.

Soon enough, the boat decelerated when it reached its normal speed, and no longer did May feel the need to cling onto her seat for dear life. Now, she figured, all that she could do then was to follow the officers' advice and enjoy the ride. Despite the shock of apparently being treated like a criminal, she gazed to her left to see a blue horizon spanning for miles outward, with Wingull flying overhead and seeming to follow the boat in a game of tag.

After the surprise encounter with Team Rocket that left her bedridden for half a week, she realized she never really had much time to appreciate the sights, feel the breeze, or enjoy the rhythmic rocking of the waves. It would have been nice to have the chance to do so, alone with Ash, and not packed on a motorboat like a bunch of sardines, but at that point, she'd take what she could get. Plus, there was always time after questioning, right? After everything blew over, she and Ash would finally get their long-awaited time to themselves.

 _Yeah, that's right. Just the two of us…_

Her eyelids grew heavy, and her head cocked to the side in the search for support before gently settling on Ash's shoulder. He didn't object and, in fact, lay his own head on hers in kind. Soon enough, the couple drifted off to what little sleep they could get despite the loud motor and the lack of a backrest.

* * *

Just about as soon as May was finally able to nod off, the boat started to slow to a halt. She was hesitant to open her eyes after her near-orbit with the warm embrace of sleep; all she wanted was to remain undisturbed and unburdened with human contact besides Ash's, but a couple of prods to her shoulder all but guaranteed a postponement of such a luxury. She grimaced as the bright light of the late afternoon sun startled her slumbering pupils.

After a gentle massaging of her eyes and a minute to grow acclimated to the change, she was roused once more, although noticeably less content. The others seemed to echo her sentiment, as groans and complaints nearly drowned out the instructions that the officers were giving, to the point where only a sudden screech from a megaphone could suffice to silence their tongues.

"All right, now that I have your attention," Officer Jenny said, somewhat annoyed at the clamor. "We have reached One Island. As we mentioned before, our final destination is the Pokémon Center. Please stick close by to us, and please just be patient while we escort you."

As per the officers' request for silence, the others didn't speak beyond much more than a whisper while they walked through the empty streets, but they still yet could not resist vocalizing their grievances with "standard procedure," or whatever the archipelago's law enforcement called it. The only ones who didn't see it fit to complain was Ash and Pikachu, the former of which was still sleeping, no doubt a lingering side effect of the mind control from earlier. Despite numerous, creative attempts to get him to awaken—slaps, water on the face, hanging upside down, _et cetera_ —he still wouldn't budge, and so the services of a particularly beefy officer had to be employed to get him mobile.

When everyone was settled, they were off.

May looked around with melancholy as they strolled through on the sidewalk. Despite the gorgeous weather, it was saddening to see that the events from the other day still had a drastic impact on the tourism on the island, which was still mostly deserted, besides a few courageous onlookers. There were no model surf boards in sight, the jet skis were now more than likely kept in storage, and the pink bikini that had previously caught her eye was imprisoned behind a darkened glass window.

She remembered the ice cream they had before, as well, only to see that the stall that served it was nowhere in sight. That, in particular, stung her, and not just because the blazing sun and the lack of a gentle breeze were cooking her alive. She also just simply craved something sweet to get some semblance of comfort in the whirlwind of recent events.

Hot and dejected, everyone trudged along the road silently until the Pokémon Center in the distance grew larger. Half were happy the ordeal was nearly over, but the other half, May included, bellyached at the fact that, in order to see the end, they'd have to climb uphill just to reach the doors. It certainly wasn't a venture up Mount Everest, of course, but the walk of shame they'd been hiking had them so wanting to get everything over with that even an anthill was enough to force a whimper from the strongest willed among them.

Fortunately, a few minutes later, they finally had a foot through the automatic doors, which, this time, opened of their own accord without issue. The bunch scrambled in and, as soon as they were released from their handcuffs and given the go ahead, collapsed onto the ground in a panting, sweaty heap. The sudden burst of dry, cold air from the air conditioning was simply a godsend, and for a moment, it was as though the torment from minutes ago had been wiped from their memory completely. Being able to stretch their arms without hurting their wrists was just a bonus.

Nurse Joy, be it by force of habit or contractual obligations, swung around the front desk to gather everyone's Pokémon and all around just raise spirit. Her Blissey partner followed close behind with a stretcher to take a now-sleeping Pikachu and Meowth to the back room with the rest, leaving everyone else without Pokémon to their name while the police seized the opportunity to grill them on what was happening while they were defenseless.

In the lobby stood what remained of the ransacked Network Machine, still riddled with large holes and emptied of many of its necessary components. Scott himself was mere feet away; he raised a hand to greet May's party and even walked up to initiate a much-needed catchup conversation, but he was immediately stopped as officers gathered in front of the group to individually question each person.

A feeling of dread loomed over May as one such officer approached her. He seemed pleasant enough, but the encounter itself still left her uncomfortable, on edge, and just a little bit ashamed. Even so, she quickly reasoned that the process would have been much quicker and far less painful if she complied with the questioning and showed no signs of resisting.

And so, when prompted to speak, she began regaling her story—a tale fraught with love, danger, and perhaps just a bit too much water…

* * *

"And that's what happened," May finally concluded after what must've been an hour of talking. Her throat had long since grown dry, and so she was constantly grasping for the glass of water the officer had graciously fetched for her earlier. She couldn't be sure how her audience of one would take her story and so was quite conscientious to not overembellish it. Her concern that maybe he didn't believe her grew as she drew closer to the end; on the one hand, the officer was respectful enough to not interrupt her beyond the odd "hmm" here and there, but on the other, there was little way to tell if what she was saying was really making an impression.

The two sat in silence across from each other for an uncomfortably still minute while she braced herself for the officer to make some sort of move. She held her breath in a stroke of fear and realized from her lungs' need for oxygen that both had been waiting for longer than what was probably necessary.

Cautious, she chimed, "Well? Is this good?" She asked herself if there was a part of her story that was just a bit too unbelievable, or perhaps a part where she dedicated a few too many minutes, and the constant thinking added kindling to an already-smoldering anxiety under the surface.

The officer scratched the back of his head pensively. "Just to make sure I have everything straight here: You categorically deny any association with this organization?"

A tad miffed, her mind drifted to a few choice words. _Were you really not paying any attention when I said they almost_ blew me up _?_ Ultimately, she left them unsaid—little need to sully whatever already-tenuous standing she had in his eyes. Instead, she nodded and acknowledged in the affirmative.

"I see. So you posit, then, that you had led a charge against Team Rocket yourself to rescue your boyfriend?"

Well, she wasn't sure if "led" was the proximate word in this case, but she elected to put pedantry aside for a moment and responded, "Yeah."

"That was a very brave decision," he said with very little change to his facial expression. "And also very reckless, I hope you're aware. Why didn't you contact the police about this?"

"We had no choice," she said without hesitation. "If we waited for the authorities, they'd have taken the Sapphire from Scott and used it for their own Network Machine before they even got the message. We had to take the fight to them as quickly as we could."

There was also the fact that they'd be willingly handing Jessie, James, and Meowth to their legal doom if they went that route, a small detail she left unsaid out of fear of him thinking she was abetting criminals.

"You didn't think it wise to escort Scott to the police with you? Surely you must've realized that he—and, thus, the Sapphire—would have been safe under our purview?"

May's sudden burst of confidence fizzled out as she scrambled to come up with some sort of justification that would appease him. There wasn't much that she could even consider that hadn't implicated she was acting irrationally. There was just something in her code that compelled her to shoulder all the responsibility she could. Was it learned? Innate? If she had never met Ash, whose lean towards acting on instinct, more often than not, informed or even consistently overrode his sense of reason or valor, would she have perhaps acted more cautiously?

"I mean, I guess you have a point there…" she reluctantly conceded, unable to defend herself. "I guess it just sort of...became personal."

Again, the officer's facial expression did not change much; it still apparently was set to a default blank, non-judgmental look. However, he did respond with, "That's understandable enough. All's well that ends well, I suppose," after jotting down a few things in his notebook. "I think that's everything. You're free to go, miss."

Wait, just like that? Not that she was going to complain, but telling her story seemed a little too simple.

"That's right. There are no strings attached," he said between chuckles, noting her confused look. "I do have one more question, though. I'd say that it would be way too far fetched to assume that you'd be in cahoots with them after your statement, but why do you think Brandon of the Frontier Brains would be involved?"

Brandon? Why would he think that she had any idea? And why did he even care?

After May asked as much, he responded, "Because if you consider the fact you said he fought against your party in the Battle Fortress, don't his other actions strike you as odd? I mean, you said you suspect him of being the one who saved you and your boyfriend on Mt. Ember, right?"

He had a point, she thought. She never could put her finger on it before then, but Brandon never had a clear allegiance to anyone, it seemed. Even Scott told her as much not long before. In addition to that, he was reticent about any of his goals to the end.

But why?

May shook her head in frustration as she racked her brain but ultimately came up with nothing. She did tell him she agreed that Brandon was still rather fishy, but that was all she could definitively say for sure.

"Very well," he said. "That's a shame. Perhaps it'll be made more clear after we finish questioning the others. Please, feel free to go about your business and rest, if you need to."

And then the officer turned around and departed, leaving May heaving a deep sigh of held breath and letting the last drop of nervous sweat fall from her brow. Was it finally done? Was she finally free? There were no other obligations to keep her in a constant state of alertness? Almost paranoid, she waited for a minute, and then five. Thirty minutes passed without any other officer paying her mind; all were far too preoccupied grilling the others to notice that she had been sitting alone, silent.

It wasn't until Brock was done being questioned that May realized just how worried she was about her survival, physical or otherwise. A wave of relief she had scarcely felt before in her life washed over her and nearly brought her to tears. Even though the hunger that she managed to suppress for the past day or so started to flare into a boil in her stomach, she didn't bother getting out of her seat to fetch some food. Instead, she sat back in whatever way she could and enjoyed whatever iota of solitude she found herself granted.

It wasn't long, however, before even more people got finished with their questioning. Cyndi was released next, followed closely by Ash, who had been wearily carrying Pikachu like a zombie. Greta and Anabel took a significantly longer time before they were let go—understandable, perhaps, given how much they were involved in the scheme to begin with.

Tucker and Brandon, on the other hand, were clear exceptions. They were still in custody over an hour into the questioning; and Giovanni, Cassidy, Butch, and—worryingly—Jessie, James, and Meowth were to be held indefinitely.

It was after hearing about it from Scott that May stood up in indignation. "They can't do that!" she burst aloud forcefully, startling everyone in earshot. "Don't they know what Jessie, James, and Meowth have done to help!?"

"I understand how you feel," Scott replied considerably more calmly, "but it's not like we could have expected otherwise. I myself got a very stern interrogation just for having been loaned money from their boss. I can only imagine how much worse they'd have it when they were actual _members_ of Team Rocket."

"Still, though. Isn't there, I dunno, some sort of good Samaritan law or something that protects them?"

"Well, I'm no lawyer, but those don't apply to actual crimes they've committed, I'm afraid. Stealing back from a robber doesn't make you immune from being prosecuted for being a robber yourself way back when."

"Plus, remember, May," Brock said, "there's no guarantee that they'd even turned over a new leaf, anyway. That's the assumption the police are going by, I bet."

"Well, I don't think that's right, either," Ash said while still clutching his head. "They tried to help us even after all that horrible stuff I did to 'em. Isn't there anything we can do to stop it? I think they've earned another chance. It's not like they'd even have a choice of going back to their old ways anyway."

Scott raised his hands in surrender. "Look, kids, I agree with you. I really do. I even let the police know that I won't be pressing charges against them. But I'm not the one you need to convince."

He motioned to Officer Jenny, who was standing just behind him, apparently unable to help herself from overhearing. "What seems to be the problem, miss?" she asked. "My subordinate told me that he was done with questioning you. Even gave you good remarks for your storytelling ability!"

May ignored the compliment, unsure if it was genuine praise or just sarcasm. She went on to explain her concerns about the Team Rocket Trio with a defensive fervor that would rival an attorney's. Even Officer Jenny, who had surely seen years of impassioned defenses in court, seemed impressed with her resolve.

"I see," she muttered in a shocked daze when May said her piece. "You're very convincing when you're full of energy, I gotta say."

"Well, did it work?" May asked with a hopeful smile, hands clasped together in an earnest beg.

"To be honest, I'm not all that gung-ho about having those three prosecuted myself. Despite a few minor holes here and there, the testimony from each of you paints a very vivid portrait of a wayward trio of friends battling against evil in an hour of need—or something like that. But...well, rules are rules; if they've been associating with a criminal enterprise, we're ethically obligated to investigate long and hard into their actions."

May's began to sink, but she continued to hold her breath in anticipation when it was clear that Officer Jenny wasn't finished speaking.

"That said, Team Rocket's primary presence is in the Kanto region, and the Sevii Islands aren't strictly within Kanto's jurisdiction. Since it's not _technically_ against local law to merely _associate_ with international criminal enterprises…"

The sinking in May's heart slowed to somewhere near halfway to her stomach.

"Well, we'll put in a good word for them—that is, unless you want to press charges for them almost killing you, of course?"

May didn't hesitate to shake her head. "No, of course not! I believe in them for helping me, so this is the least I can do to repay them."

Jenny smiled, satisfied with her answer. "That's it, then. Your resolve is inspiring to me, so I'll personally see to it that the Kantonian government be convinced to show them some mercy. They'll be just fine—I swear it."

Perhaps against her better judgment, May's spirits rose. "How can you say that for sure?"

"Call it a gut feeling," Officer Jenny simply said, flashing a thumbs up. May couldn't immediately explain why, but seeing her be that confident that things would be okay put her mind at ease and gave her lungs the permission to breathe properly again. For a moment, her attitude strongly reminded her of Ash's own.

"Well, then," Jenny finally said, "if that's everything, I'll be on my way."

May, just remembering something that was bothering her, raised her hand to stop her. "Please wait just another moment," she said in a hurry. "Before you go, I wanted to ask you what you guys will be doing with Brandon, too."

Jenny raised an eyebrow. "Brandon? Are you trying to save him, too?"

"Oh, no, no, no," May babbled with waving hands. "But there was something I was hoping to talk with him about, if you guys were done with him."

Jenny paused for a moment as if to process what, exactly, was going through May's head. It looked as though she was going to reject her strange request outright, but instead, "We still have a few more hours scheduled with him. Normally, we wouldn't let unauthorized personnel question suspects, but considering how you've helped us today, we'll make an exception for you—but _only_ for you. Come this way, and be sure to collect your Pokémon from Nurse Joy first. You know, just in case."

May beamed in gratitude and briskly followed the officer's instructions, scrambling to the desk and asking for her Pokémon, who had just recently been treated for their injuries. After reclaiming all her Poké Balls, she quickly uttered a "thank you" to the nurse before turning once more to Officer Jenny, who guided her to one of the side rooms where the police had set up makeshift interrogation rooms. Giovanni had his own towards the end of the center's hallway, guarded by two sentries, vigilant and nearly unmoving. Right next to that one was Brandon's, also guarded by a sentry, albeit one who looked a bit less like he wanted to actually be there.

Jenny shuffled past the relatively-lazy sentry and loudly tapped a few times on the door. "Officer Jenny here. Open up, please." For the next half minute, May could hear the sound of grunting and panting on the other side, and thoughts of Hollywood torture rushed through her mind as the grunting stopped and the door finally opened.

When she was escorted past the threshold and looked inside, she realized, however, that Brandon himself—facing her once more with his scowl—looked reasonably healthy, besides the visible black eye, probably a result of being knocked out earlier. The door closed behind them, and then the grunting and panting she heard had resumed. Turns out that, instead of "enhanced interrogation" she heard about on TV, it was just because the officers previously interrogating him were simply barricading the door. A faulty lock, perhaps?

Whatever the reason, when the officers were done moving the heavy bunk bed in front of the door, they turned around to face their suspect once more and the young girl who had resolved to join them. "You wish to ask him some questions yourself, Jenny?"

"Oh, not me," she said, after which she motioned to May, who had already taken a seat on the bottom bunk of the other bed in the room. The other officers, despite their confusion, knew better than to question an esteemed colleague and elected to hold their questions for another time.

And so all eyes then turned expectantly onto May. The gazes were a little distracting, but she tried her best to ignore it in favor of trying to break the ice with a greeting. "Hello, Brandon," she said with a tone that she tried to make not too confident as to be unapproachable but also not too soft that he couldn't hear her.

No response.

The pressure forced an awkward laugh out of the girl. "I guess saying hello won't do anything… All right, listen, Brandon. There are still some things that have been bothering me, some questions that are left unanswered."

Brandon, for the first time since their meeting in the Battle Fortress, answered her in a sort of raspy tone that gave her the impression that he hadn't had anything to drink for days. "And are these questions about me, specifically? Why?"

"Because out of everyone involved in this whole thing, you're the biggest mystery of all."

Although he acknowledged to himself that she was right, Brandon nearly chuckled still at the sheer audacity May had to even think she had the power to coerce a story out of him. "I see. Well, then, get on with it. What are your questions?"

She began with the first thing that crossed her mind, and the thing that, up to that point, bothered her the most. "I want to know your motives."

"That's a rather vague request."

 _Says the guy who's given nothing but vague answers all this time_ , May thought with her tongue firmly held in place between her teeth.

"You wish to know my motives for working with Team Rocket despite knowing what atrocities they commit? It should be obvious by now, right? Surely you've seen the rare-colored Ho-Oh for yourself and even defeated it in battle? My goal and life's work has been to search for and study the legendary Pokémon—and I did everything in my power to stop you and your ilk from interfering. What else is there to say?"

"Giovanni told me as much," May replied, recalling that he himself referred to him as a "contractor" of sorts. However, she shook her head, dissatisfied. "But no, that can't be all it is."

"Of course it is," Brandon spat. "As selfish as it may appear, I am an archaeologist. It was all a means to an end to satiate my hunger for knowledge."

May was undeterred, still shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but I think you're lying."

"'Lying'? I'm currently held against my will in a room with three people capable of compelling me to talk with physical force, or worse, if necessary. In what universe do you think I have a good reason to lie?"

"Well, fine, maybe you're not _lying_ so much as you aren't even aware of the truth to begin with?"

"I say you assume too much, especially when you consider the evidence. Prove me wrong, then; what gives you the impression that I'm lying?"

"The stuff that happened before—when Tucker was attacking me and Ash, I mean. You were the one who stopped him in the shadows, weren't you?"

Brandon took a moment to adjust the handcuffs that had been chafing his wrists. "And if I was?"

"I mean, well... _thank you_ , for one. If it weren't for you, we would have died, for sure."

Brandon grunted, apparently not paying any heed to her odd display of gratitude.

"But more than that, multiple things that happened then and even afterward were just bizarre. If you were the one who saved us, what were you even doing there hiding in the shadows to begin with? Why would you save me if you were just going to try to kill me later in the Battle Fortress and keep me from facing Giovanni myself? And why was Tucker so sure that _I_ had the Sapphire when he fought us back on Two Island?"

Like that of a statue, Brandon's expression didn't much change. "Methinks you've jumped a few too many guns. Let's say that I was the one who helped you and Ash on Mt. Ember. What makes you think that I would even know what was going through Tucker's head when he was looking for that blasted thing?"

May's eyes lowered as a sly smile stretched from ear to ear. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said in a faux-apologetic tone. "I didn't _say_ it was Mt. Ember where Tucker attacked us."

That certainly shut him up. The only sound he could make was a scathing _tsk!_ in self-deprecation.

 _Heh, got 'im._

But even in spite of that, Brandon still maintained his adamance and seemingly refused to say anything else to the girl, averting her gaze like a child who had just spilled grape juice on the carpet.

"Brandon, you can tell me the truth now. I don't understand why you're being so secretive now, of all times."

He looked as though he suddenly wanted to speak but then hesitated just a moment before his tongue could move. After a couple seconds, he just went back to his original position of simply glaring past Officer Jenny and tightly sealing his lips anew.

"Are you that afraid of being found out?"

Surprisingly, this time Brandon nodded, giving May just the slightest hope that maybe they could get somewhere.

"You should know by now that secrets will not put you in a better position," Jenny said. "If you don't at least try to defend yourself, you _will_ be punished to the maximum extent of the law, I assure you. Is that what you want?"

He still didn't budge.

" _Why_ are you so afraid?" May asked in turn, beginning to sound desperate. "I already know you were the one who helped us on Mt. Ember, even though you were already waist-deep into Giovanni's scheme by then. You can't have been all bad if you did the one thing that would have made your benefactor's life harder."

And then, Brandon exhaled through his nostrils, as though to release all the stress that had possessed him up until that point like a fumarole hissing from the side of a volcano. He then spoke, the cracks in the shackles around his throat beginning to form. "I'm afraid that if I tell you everything, all my work will be for naught."

"'All for naught'?" Jenny asked. "How much worse off can your work be when you're already in police custody?"

"Because if I tell you anything, _Giovanni will kill that Ho-Oh!_ "

The room fell silent following Brandon's first forceful outburst in a long while. So all that time, each instance where he had been less than transparent with anyone as to what he was playing at, it was because of that? May especially felt uncomfortable at the thought of pressing him further, just like she would with any cornered animal ready to bite.

However, despite the moment of emotional instability, she pushed against her discomfort and sought to soothe him before the situation got worse. "Brandon," May said gently, "it's okay. The Ho-Oh will be fine. Look."

May reached into her pack and pulled out an odd black-and-yellow ball. She rolled it around in her hand, careful to not let it fall to the floor, and waited for the telltale sign of Brandon's eyes bulging wide in recognition before she continued with a warm smile. "Yes, you see, don't you? Giovanni isn't the Trainer of the Ho-Oh anymore—I am. And I swear to you that no harm will come to him. Not by Giovanni, and not by anyone else."

For a moment, May had started to fear that Brandon's reaction wasn't an especially positive one. His scowl remained, and his shoulders began to shake, as though the stress in his lungs had returned. However, his bulging eyes eventually softened, and his scowl soon curled into what she could only describe as a small smile of his own—a sight that she had since thought to be impossible, given his presumed slip into despair.

"So the Ho-Oh is finally out of his clutches? And the device has been removed, as well?"

She assumed he was referring to whatever it was that was keeping it under his control. Feeling confident once more, she nodded.

"If it's as you say, May," he then said, his raspy voice shaking in rhythm with his shoulders, "then I'll trust you. Very well. I'll tell you everything I know."

May looked around at the officers in the room, and besides the dark circles indicating a severe lack of rest, they almost looked impressed. If she were to wager a guess, she'd say they had little luck getting particularly-good information out of him. Somewhat surprised she'd even have gotten that far herself were it not for her new sixth Pokémon, she, nevertheless, made it a point this time to not question the victories she took.

And so, she went back to the beginning.

"Would I be right in saying that this was your motive?"

"Partially," Brandon answered with a quickness and relative straightforwardness that felt like a breath of fresh air for once. "Perhaps not at first—everything I did was, indeed, in pursuit of funding to look for Ho-Oh—but after the situation changed, it sort of became that."

"The situation changing being what?"

"Well, as you're already aware, the funding and searching paid off: We found a variant of Ho-Oh much unlike the ancient accounts and hieroglyphs suggest, and we just...saw it flying straight toward us. To see years of research and study realized in but an instant was a strange feeling for me, like an adrenaline high without the danger.

"I didn't think it very respectful to catch it, but Giovanni assured me at the time that it was necessary if either of our goals were to be realized—and so, I let him do it. He took it down with ease and captured it in that very ball you're holding now. From there, even though I wasn't partial to how he treated such a pristine specimen, my thoughts ultimately lay with the science to the exclusion of anything else. I wanted to study it. No, I _had_ to study it."

Brandon then stopped for a moment, and in the pause, May caught a glimpse of his cuffed hands clenching. "But as I should have expected, he had plans of his own..."

" _This isn't what we agreed on!" Brandon yelled at a Giovanni cloaked in shadow. "You told me we'd only be studying Ho-Oh, not_ experimenting _on it!"_

 _Giovanni's glare pierced through the dark veil and into his eyes, freezing him on the spot as if he were stalked by an Arbok. "I said what I said," he replied, his outward tranquility belying a fiery wrath. "We're_ studying _the effects of the mind hacking devices, including, but not limited to, the benefits of mind hacking Legendary Pokémon."_

" _Do you really think I would have gone along with this whole affair if I had known you would have been planning something so twisted?"_

" _Did you really care all that much?" Giovanni asked nonchalantly. "You knew I'd be using your services to get a strategic foothold in the Sevii Islands, all in return for your chance to see Ho-Oh up close, and you didn't even bat an eye."_

 _Brandon shook his head in anger, some of which was directed at himself for being so myopic. "Well, our arrangement ends here. I now know what you're planning to do to that Ho-Oh, and I also know what you've been doing to Anabel in secret. How she can stomach dealing with the hell you put her through, let alone sing your praises with a straight face, will be a mystery that forever eludes me. I acknowledge I've been rather zealous in pursuit of my own goal, so I know I have no right to convince her she's been fooled, but this—all of this!—is just too extreme."_

 _To this, Giovanni could only laugh to conceal the twitches in his eyes formed from rage. "Backing out, are you? I hope you realize, then, there's a severance clause for every Faustian bargain."_

 _If Brandon's eyes narrowed any further, they'd have become mere slits. "What are you saying?"_

" _If you back out of our arrangement, or even so much as let loose your lips to the public about it, then I'll activate the kill switch that was implanted in the Ho-Oh's device. Just a click of a button…" He pulled out what seemed to be a small remote control from his coat pocket. "...and the Ho-Oh's brain will melt into goo. Do you want that?"_

 _Brandon's narrowed eyes widened incredulously, and in his shock, he took a step backward to regain his lost balance seized by a sudden spell of dizziness. "You're insane, Giovanni," he mouthed while his lost voice returned to him. "In the aim of safeguarding my allegiance to you, you'd hold such a powerful Pokémon at gunpoint? You'd_ kill _the ultimate golden goose in your possession?"_

" _Oh, believe me, I'd rather we not go this route, either. However, I can't afford to willingly have a rogue agent loose and jeopardize everything else I've already accomplished thus far. Besides, if your research is to be believed, then there must be other, different-colored Ho-Ohs somewhere in the world. I have enough resources to wait for another to come along, but you? If you did, well, you wouldn't have requested my help in the first place."_

"Wow…" was all May could find in her heart to say. It bothered her that there was little she could really bring up that was anything but a cool comfort, so she did all she could do in trying to move the conversation along. "So the devices had a 'kill switch' all this time?"

"Such accursed technology…" Brandon snarled. "It would seem that by having all the Brains at his disposal, he thought he had procured a warehouse of Pandora's boxes that he was all too eager to open. Anabel's powers were the obvious first point of study before we even got close to trailing the Ho-Oh, and apparently, lying dormant in her is an ability far too potent for any sensible person to awaken willingly.

"But he studied it, and with an academic zeal that rivaled even my own. If he was to be believed, he got far enough in to actually implement it on top of the general 'mind hacking' functionality she was able to perform on others, or whatever silly name fits it better."

May shuddered as she realized in retrospect just how bad things could have gotten if she hadn't actually destroyed the devices in time. _If I didn't do anything about them, does that mean Ash and Charizard would also have…?_ She shook her head to get the image out, slapping her face for good measure. There was no use entertaining hypotheticals, she reminded herself.

"So long story short, he essentially kept the Ho-Oh hostage to get you to keep doing his bidding because he knew you wouldn't risk its life?"

"That's the long and short of it, yes," he replied, closing his glaring eyes. "Go ahead. Laugh."

May refused. "I couldn't laugh at someone being forced to make a choice like that."

"Well, even so, it was a weakness he exploited. He had me gripped by the neck so tightly that I couldn't risk slighting him. One mistake would have been all it took to ruin everything."

Some pieces were falling into place, finally. However, there was plenty more confusion to clear up. "So, now I understand why you were so secretive all this time—but that doesn't explain why you bothered helping us in the first place. After all, if you were afraid Giovanni was going to catch you in the act, why would you do it?"

Brandon opened his eyes once more and glanced upward in deep thought, his words taking time to conjure. "And by 'help,' I presume you're referring to the Mt. Ember incident?"

May nodded.

"Well, this was before we encountered the Ho-Oh, mind; I was still granted some measure of autonomy in my daily schedule. Perhaps it was a weakness of will or just an overactive conscience that I did it, but you could say that I was just doing my part to be a spanner in their operation from almost the beginning, after I found out about his experimentations on Anabel.

"Tucker, in contrast, was all in on his plans—perhaps for reasons greedier than my own, which says volumes. After I heard about his ambitions regarding the Network Machine, I knew that if Team Rocket had gotten a hold of the Ruby and Sapphire, on top of finishing their research into Anabel's powers, their hold on the Sevii Islands would have been unbreakable—and that I would have played a huge part in securing that bond. So I did what any ethical scientist would do and tried to fight it in secret.

"Just one way I did my part was assisting you and Ash on Mt. Ember. To be completely honest, though, that wasn't solely for your benefit. Yes, I did make sure my partner Regice froze the magma pit so Ash could survive his fall, but with the Hyper Beam, I was aiming to weaken his team so you could then swipe the Ruby back from him. If I succeeded with that, then Team Rocket's foothold on the Sevii Islands would have hit a brick wall."

"But Tucker ended up making off with the Ruby anyway…" May followed up slowly, connecting more of the dots.

Brandon nodded. "Precisely. I didn't quite expect he'd use the rock opening we created as his escape route, but...well, I guess he's the Dome Ace for a reason. Still, I couldn't let slide that he almost brought innocent people to their deaths, so rest assured, I let Giovanni know about that incident."

"Wait, did you tell him that you were trying to stop Tucker from getting the Ruby?"

Brandon laughed—a rarity, especially given his situation. "Of course not! He already got the Ruby by that point, so there was no need to blow my cover; all I told him was that Tucker was making a scene and that I stopped him from killing you two. It worked well enough that, for some reason, he didn't probe further. In fact, all he had done was ask I tell other people he personally ordered me to intervene if I was asked—most likely all in a desperate attempt to curry favor with the authorities in the event all his plans were foiled. No doubt he's telling the same story in the other room as we speak."

Officer Jenny, shaking her head in amusement, chuckled to herself as she listened. "Yeah, you certainly got that right…"

Brandon chose to ignore the snide, yet agreeable, remark in order to continue. "In the end, you guys _were_ safe, but with Tucker making off with one of two necessary components to reverse engineer the Network Machine, that left less room for error to keep him from getting the other, and so I had to resort to a little duplicity."

"Duplicity?" May asked. "By which you mean…?"

"Trickery. Beguilement. Whichever word of the day you like. I refer, of course, to Tucker's impression that you had the Sapphire in your possession on Two Island, as you recalled earlier."

Upon hearing her suspicions confirmed, May gave him a mean look. "So even though you knew he was crazy and tried to kill me before, you still thought it was a good idea to have him think I had what he wanted!?"

Brandon lowered his face, the impact from her glare piercing him to his soul and forcing him to cower. "Yes, I understand that was underhanded of me. It was necessary, however, in order to keep him off the scent for as long as possible—and it worked, at least for a while, considering he completely ignored the Dotted Hole before he realized the truth on Two Island."

She backed off a bit with her forceful demeanor and pouted, crossing her arms. "Well, still… You could have warned us, at least. We could have played along and led him on. And then we could have gotten the Sapphire before Team Rocket even thought about checking there, right?"

"That idea did cross my mind, but considering Giovanni had eyes everywhere out there—and on you and your friends in particular? He'd have caught on quickly."

May sighed, still somewhat aggravated at the thought of being targeted on false pretenses, but she did see it in her heart to be more understanding. The alternative would have been to target some random person somewhere else, which would have perhaps been even more risky. Brandon probably knew she had some means of defending herself or, at the very least, a posse to come to her aid if she needed it. Some unwary person on the street would probably not have been so lucky.

"You did fairly well enough, anyway. You got to the Sapphire before they did and even found a way to recruit Greta and Anabel to your side; the latter, rather unsurprising, considering the baggage I'm sure she now carries in light of her momentary tenure under Giovanni."

May gulped as she recalled the unthinkable horror she came to realize during her talk with Giovanni, regarding Anabel's experimentation. She was reluctant to ask for more details, and honestly, the thought of doing so gave her a sour stomach. As far as she was concerned, she had heard enough about it and just wanted to forget.

"And with that," Brandon said with an air of finality in his composure that brought May back down to reality, "I believe I've told you all that I know. Believe me or disbelieve me if you will, but I've said all I could. Unless you can think of something else I missed?"

She certainly couldn't think of anything. His explanation, she thought, was rather thorough—maybe even a bit _too_ thorough.

Despite all the sense his story made to her, May couldn't help but feel that it was all just a tad convenient. She could scarcely shake the part of her mind nagging her that maybe his entire story was suspect on the grounds of being some sort of a revisionist defense aimed at helping him save face. She didn't forget, after all, that he still sought out a loan from Team Rocket simply to continue his research and, as a result, enabled a number of atrocities to pay it back with interest.

Then again, a certain individual said the same thing about Scott once before—and were fortune absent, he would have taken his life for it.

So, in the end, May abstained from passing judgment on the Brains, sans Tucker and Lucy. Whether or not he was being completely candid with her, or even whether or not Giovanni had the right of it and Brandon was simply trying to lead her astray, she found it beyond her ability to entertain either way. All she cared about at that point was that, whatever had happened, it was over and that the closure she had was enough for her.

Finally, May stood up, taking care to not hit her head on the top bunk, and stretched off some of the weariness that had crept into her limbs. "I think that's everything, Brandon. Thank you for telling me your story," she said with a polite bow.

Brandon, for his part, nodded in acceptance. "You're welcome. I hope this at least gives you closure in light of all this madness."

"Yeah, it does. Thanks again."

She then turned to Officer Jenny and the others who had been listening in and offered them the same sort of thanks, and like Brandon, they accepted. Getting the hint that she was ready to leave, they went over to the makeshift barricade in front of the door and pushed it out of the way, giving her the opportunity to open the door and slip through.

Before she could, however, Brandon stopped her with a sudden call. "Actually, before you go, I'd like to ask you something myself."

May peeked her head from behind the door. "Uh, sure. What is it?"

Brandon shifted a bit uncomfortably in his chair, as though he wasn't sure whether or not he really wanted to ask. "Take good care of that Ho-Oh, will you? When I'm free once more—and I will be, eventually—I would very much like to see it again from time to time." He noticed her surprise and quickly scrounged up an apology before following up with, "If you wouldn't mind, of course."

May, though indeed surprised, didn't think much of it and smiled. "Of course! We'll stay in touch."

She could tell that Brandon's discomfort was supplanted with elation when she didn't object to the idea. His shoulders loosened from being stiff throughout their conversation, and he let go of the grip that was digging his nails so far into his palm they nearly bled. He nodded at her in thanks before closing his eyes, relieved but clearly tired in his own right.

A feeling she related to all too well.

Ready to leave, May slipped through the door once again and walked back to the lobby, where most of her friends had been waiting. They didn't seem to notice her arrival despite the sound of her dragging footsteps. Perhaps they were too focused on their conversation to do so; what it was, she had too little energy to commit it to memory or pay attention herself. Instead of greeting them and interrupting their chat, she eyed one of the vacant couches nearby and plopped down.

Their conversation seemed to continue unabated, although the voices themselves grew muffled as the temptation of sleep began to possess her. Her eyes slid shut, and although she was within earshot, she could no longer make out any of the voices or even notice that anyone was there anymore. After a couple of minutes, the hunger haunting her was finally overshadowed by her need to rest, and it, like everything else around her, simply faded out of existence.

* * *

 **And there's the penultimate chapter. I hope this at least tied up some loose ends that were left dangling for a long time. And so we've almost reached the end. Tune in this Thursday when we finally publish the** ** _final_** **chapter to this whole saga.**

 **And wouldn't you know it? This Thursday's Advanceshipping Day, isn't it? It's almost like I specifically planned for this...**

 **...Nah, just a coincidence, I'm sure. ;)**


	6. So Long and Thanks for All the Corphish!

**Happy Advanceshipping Day, everyone!**

 **We finally made it. It is, for real this time, the final chapter to the** ** _May's Crush_** **saga. Honestly, I can hardly believe we've finally gotten to this point. It's always felt like a distant goal... But now, it's finally here.**

 **Let's get this one last show on the road!**

* * *

The next few days raced by rather quickly, largely thanks to all the sleep May and Ash alike caught up on. The former ended up sleeping for the rest of the night; the latter, on the other hand, was practically comatose for three whole days, only getting up a select few times for food and the bathroom before sleeping once more in one of the hostel rooms. She and Brock were worried that maybe he had suffered permanent brain damage, but then they recalled that Cyndi had shown similar symptoms after being possessed earlier and had eventually gotten better.

And so, they held out hope that it was only a matter of time, although May didn't think it gave her an excuse to not keep a close watch on him to monitor his condition in case it did go south. The others understood and left the couple to themselves while Ash recovered. Keeping watch wasn't the most eventful job in the world, so she caught herself dozing off at his bedside more than once.

On the fourth morning, she lifted her head off the drool-soaked sheets to find Ash's body no longer in bed. Originally not thinking much of it, she lowered her head back down onto a drier section and closed her eyes, but then she sprang upright and hit her head on the top bunk when she put two and two together. Her legs moved on their own accord out of the room and sprinted down the hallway and into the dining hall, where she found Ash, Brock, Cyndi, Anabel, and Greta munching on bacon and toast and chewing the fat, both metaphorically and literally.

Ash almost choked on his food when he realized he had found himself in a surprise bear hug from behind, which May promptly apologized for before bear hugging him again anyway. He was more prepared the second time and took it in stride despite the fact his omelette was now further out of reach. Anabel was somewhat mute about what was happening, while the others simply found it hilarious and took a moment to appreciate it before May let go and helped herself to a large helping of breakfast herself.

"So, Ash," May said after sitting down in front of her huge platter and taking a bite, "how are you feeling?"

"Never felt better!" he exclaimed, taking care not to chew with his mouth visibly open. "I can actually look at things now without my head feeling like it's about to explode."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Cyndi responded, her elbows resting next to her own plate emptied of everything except strips of bread crust. "No fun at all…"

Anabel caught wind of the slight glare headed her way and sighed. "Yes, I know. Once again, I'm very sorry about that."

Cyndi uttered a rather-unconvincing, "It's fine," before getting back to her food. May was about to object to her sour attitude, but before she could, Anabel shot a look at her telling her to not press the matter further. She reluctantly acquiesced, but only because she could still easily distract herself with another strip of bacon sitting on her plate.

Hoping to change the subject himself, Ash swallowed and posited a question of his own. "So, uh… Where are Team Rocket and the others now?"

"Well," Brock began, "all I know is that Tucker, Lucy, and Brandon have been extradited along with the Team Rocket boss himself back to Kanto. As for Jessie, James, and Meowth…"

"Oh, did someone mention us?" said a womanly voice almost on cue behind him, followed closely by a man and a feline Pokémon. "Yep, that's right! We're still here!"

"We were noivous dat da cops were gonna throw da book at us in questioning, but as it toins out, years of failure makes people dat much more willing to look the other way." To this, Wobbuffet appeared beside him and gave his signature gesture in agreement.

"Indeed," James followed up, "when we knew the Boss—er, I mean, Giovanni—had gotten arrested himself, we were sure our lives as we knew it were over. But then, it was as though an olive branch had descended from the heavens and gave us a second chance!"

"Wow," May said with wide eyes, albeit ignoring James's sudden attempt to wax poetic. "I guess Officer Jenny was able to pull through after all."

"That she was," Jessie said with a clap. "And we couldn't be more grateful."

In the years she'd known them, May had never seen them so...content. Maybe the fact that she no longer had to worry about Pikachu being snatched from Ash's clutches played a part in it, in addition to there no longer being a danger of being laughed at from above at the bottom of a pit. Even looking beyond that, though, there was a way they carried themselves that made it seem like there was little burden left for them to shoulder.

There was no better evidence of this than their very clothes. Notably absent were the white Team Rocket uniforms that they had been forever known for, and in their place was strangely _casual_ attire. Jessie was sporting a breathable blue jacket with short denim shorts. James, similar to Jessie, was wearing more modest shorts of his own that went down to his knees, as well as an orange tee that very well complemented his blue hair ("It's _lavender_.").

Meowth was...well, still not really wearing anything, but he, nevertheless, had a sort of reformed air about him like the others.

 _Could they have really turned over a new leaf after all?_ May thought to herself. She didn't much like to imagine the alternative, considering she was quickly taking a shine to their demeanor. She expressed interest in their new style and complimented them on how fresh they looked, which was taken positively by Jessie especially.

"Well," she said with a bashful giggle, "we figured that if _you_ could mark a new milestone in your life with a new look, why couldn't we?" May instinctively touched her new green bandana and blushed at the idea that she may have had any sort of positive influence on someone who needed it the most. "At the very least, we wanted something that didn't make us want to die of heat stroke in this tropical climate."

Which made sense, too, in May's eyes. She then immediately laughed off the idea that she may have had anything to do with their change in wardrobe and went back to her meal, content with her company.

It was about an hour until everyone had eaten their fill, and after cleaning up, they went into the lobby to continue their individual conversations. Anabel and a peculiarly-shy Greta talked amongst themselves about whether the Battle Frontier could continue after what happened; Brock, Cyndi, and Jessie explored the latter's newfound aspirations and what she and the others would do next; and James and Meowth simply left to take care of errands or whatever. May hoped they weren't actually going to give into recidivism and, say, rob a bank—but she stopped herself from worrying about it too much.

She then looked around to see what Ash was doing and spotted him standing a fair distance from the pack. It looked as though he was simply watching them enjoy themselves and, yet, sought solitude for himself—something she found concerning, especially after realizing that he hadn't said much while he was eating. Like before at breakfast, she snuck up from behind him and gave him a quick hug. It startled him at first, but he soon reciprocated with an embrace of his own.

With everything behind them all, all May wanted to do was catch up with him in private and grill him on what happened while she was "dead" all that time. A few words into her selling the subject, however, it became obvious to her that Ash wasn't in a particularly talkative mood for some reason. In fact, he hadn't said a word after asking about Team Rocket at breakfast, and the prospect that something had changed within him worried the girl.

Still concerned, she turned to face him and asked, "Ash, is everything all right?"

It took a second for him to react to the stimulus, leading her to believe that he had momentarily been possessed by a Slowpoke. "Yeah, I'm good," he said halfheartedly, barely making eye contact.

Perhaps needless to say, she was completely unconvinced. "What's the matter? You know I can tell when you're feeling off."

Ash sighed before hesitantly conceding. "Nothing gets by you, does it?"

She was tempted to respond with, "Only regarding you," but she wasn't particularly sure how receptive he'd be to tongue-in-cheek humor, so she shelved the quip's use for a later date. It was just as well, too, as the words began to flow from his mouth to finally break his long silence; she thought it best, therefore, to not interrupt him and risk derailing his train of thought.

"I guess…" he started slowly to give himself extra time to choose his words. "I just feel guilty."

"Oh, about what?"

Ash choked, presumably by doing his best to hold back tears. "About everything. I feel guilty about almost losing you, about joining Giovanni, about my attempt to murder Scott and Team Rocket, and about how I almost attacked the rest of you."

Noting his shaky voice, May made sure he was making eye contact and sternly said, "Ash, it wasn't your fault. You didn't murder anyone."

"It still doesn't feel right, though. Maybe I didn't kill anyone, but I did intend to, and all in the name of revenge. Doesn't that make me just as bad as a murderer?"

May's answer was a resounding "no," but when prompted to explain her reasoning, her confidence came up a bit wanting. "I mean, remember things from your perspective. You were convinced that I was dead, and you became the angriest I've ever seen in my life. You took out your anger on the wrong people, yeah, but at the time, you were just working with the information you had. For all you knew, if you didn't do anything, someone else would have died."

Ash paused for a moment to process her explanation. "So, do you still love me even though I did such awful things?"

"Oh, Ash, stop it," May snapped. "Yes, of course I love you. Nothing will ever change that in a million years!"

He stopped for a bit to process once more what she had said and, with a sniffle, stepped up to give her another hug. "Thank you, May."

May, blushing from the surprise, embraced him back. "Hey, anytime. And besides, in a roundabout way, I kinda understand how you're feeling, I think."

"You do?"

She nodded. "You weren't around to see this—thank _goodness_ —but when we were headed to the Dotted Hole to get the Sapphire before the Brains did, I spotted Greta by the front and...well, beat her up."

Ash quickly recoiled to face her, his eyes twisted into a look of shock. "You did _what_? Why?"

May broke free from his embrace, turned around to avoid his gaze, and sighed. "I was angry. There's really no other way for me to put it besides that I hated her for what she did to you. I mean, she took you away from me, Ash. So when I saw her defenseless, I let out everything. Jessie and James tried to stop me, and Greta was begging for me to stop, but I hated her so much that I wanted to kill her myself."

Ash was silent. She couldn't see him, but she figured that if she looked the other way, she would have seen fear on his face or his jaw on the floor.

"And I only stopped because I remembered what I told Misty during what happened between us a while ago. That's when I realized that, in that moment, I was no better than Harley. I succumbed to my grudge and wanted revenge of my own." Reluctantly, she spun around to confirm that Ash, indeed, was looking kind of fearful. "What I did was horrible, and I'll never forgive myself for it, even after I told her I was sorry. With that in mind, Ash, do you think I'm a murderer?"

Ash, just as quickly as she did when their roles were reversed, gave her a resounding "no" himself.

"Why is that?"

"Well," he said, trying to find his words, "because you felt remorse and wanted to make amends, I guess. I mean, sure, just about anyone who's ever killed someone could say the same, but maybe that's what separates us from coldblooded killers."

"So if you feel I deserve a second chance, don't you think you deserve one, too?"

With that, Ash finally smiled. Clearly not going to object, he leaned forward to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. "You always know what to say, don't you?"

May giggled. "Only on Fridays. Or whatever day today is. I lost track."

The couple then spent the next few minutes catching up on what the other had missed while they were apart. Ash expressed surprise at how miraculous it was that she managed to survive the explosion despite being knocked out for four days at a time without serious injuries. May expressed concern herself when she caught him mentioning the time that Greta was roughing him up while he was chained to a wall, as well as what could only be described as a very unhealthy diet of ramen and ketchup.

This style of conversation continued until Brock motioned them over to mingle. Ash, while still clearly hesitant due to his remorse of essentially holding him at gunpoint before, agreed. He squeezed May's hand for courage while she herded him over. He didn't talk much, she noted, but she knew he was still the Ash she loved—still yet with a capacity for humanity, compassion, and laughing at horrible puns.

* * *

Days passed, and then a week. For some, the novelty of the tropical weather had begun to dull, and it wasn't long until Meowth and Cyndi, two individuals who had unexpectedly hit it off and become fast friends over the past few days, complained to the others that they wanted to return to the more temperate climate they already made a home in.

Others, like Ash and May, strongly disagreed with the sentiment and vowed to make up even more of the vacation time they had lost, much to the others' chagrin. Each day, they'd leave the Pokémon Center to pick an activity or point of interest they wanted to investigate, and then go and spend some alone time there—sometimes with their Pokémon, sometimes without.

One such day, they hiked back up Mt. Ember to be patrons of the hot springs again, which they enjoyed immensely. The piping hot water made it all the more evident just how hard May worked herself over a week prior; the muscles in her legs had only begun to heal, and some residual pain that she hadn't even realized was still there had dissolved in the bath.

Some time afterwards, Ash was antsy to get back to training, which provided May the most confidence that he was beginning to feel better again. She insisted she join him, if only to give her new Ho-Oh a test drive. He accepted her challenge with zeal, although Pikachu wasn't so enthused to be battling another Legendary Pokémon so soon.

One hot lightshow later, she and Ash agreed to see if they could scrounge up some more ice cream in town. Flocks of people were making berth at the docks each day, so it was only a matter of time when that particular industry would have replanted its foothold there. Sure enough, on their way back to the Pokémon Center, the ice cream stall they patronized earlier was manned once more, and so they were able to stave off heat exhaustion for another day.

This chain of events tended to repeat itself every other day, and yet the repetition didn't bother them so much. The streak was broken, however, when Ash, all of a sudden one morning, told her he needed to spend the day in town on an errand. She didn't think much of it and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day with the others, whose dwindling patience with the sameness of it all was far more apparent than hers.

The talks continued until, well, May started to grow a bit weary herself. It just wasn't the same without Ash there, but after a while, she decided to make do with going into town on her lonesome and take care of an errand she had been meaning to get to herself.

A few hours later, when she returned, she immediately made her way to the dining hall to find the others finishing their own meal and had been told that she just missed Ash, who wasn't with them. Apparently, he was so tired that he made his way back to their room and went to sleep.

 _Poor Ash must have run himself ragged all day_ , she thought to herself as she poured herself a bowl of stew before joining in on their conversation. It, like their talks earlier in the day, weren't anything special—just the weather, the cute gift shop they found in town that day, or some such.

May didn't have much to say, however, so after finishing her meal, she bid the others a good night and tracked Ash down. Sure enough, after opening the door, the lights were off, and Ash and Pikachu were fast asleep on one of the bottom bunks. She used all her willpower to not squeal at the display of cuteness and quietly tiptoed to the shower and changed into her pajama shirt.

When she was sure she didn't wake them up, she tiptoed back over to the bedside, climbed into bed with them, and carefully wrapped her arm around him. The air conditioning was set to a particularly chilly setting that night, so she was amazed that he was able to fall asleep without any covers. It was so cold she began to shiver, but she didn't want to climb under the sheets and disturb his slumber.

Plus, after a while, she had grown acclimated, and Ash's warmth was itself a wonderful shield against the windy A/C unit. The warmth, the scent of the body wash he was finally able to use, the softness of his clothes...all of it gave her the sense of security she was missing all that time. Her eyes slowly drooped shut, and then she could finally dive headfirst into warm dreams of her own.

* * *

The next day, May awoke to find she was now the only occupant of the bed. The air conditioning had been switched off, perhaps to save power, and she felt her hair had grown sticky overnight from the humidity. Disgusted, she climbed out of bed and rushed into the shower, spending a good few minutes to scrub and remedy the grievances with her hygiene.

From there, she got dressed into her signature green outfit once more and dried her hair until it got the right degree of softness that she was satisfied with. Taking a moment to appreciate her handiwork, she left the room and made her way once more to the dining hall, where she saw Ash and Scott, of all people, having what seemed to be a somewhat-difficult discussion.

"It was _how_ much!?" Ash exclaimed with his hands in his hair, almost looking for a moment like he was going to pull it out.

Scott nervously chuckled with a hand held behind his head. "Yeah, I know. It wasn't cheap. I understand how you were feeling at the time, but apologies don't pay mortgages. If they did, I'd be a real estate mogul by now."

May, worried that something was wrong, approached the pair. "Ash? What's going on?"

Ash, startled, turned to see his girlfriend and grimaced—happy to see her, surely, but not enough to eliminate his worries. "We're having a discussion on how we're going to pay for Scott's house."

"Oh, the one that you burned down?"

He flinched and pulled the rim of his hat over his eyes in shame. "You don't have to say it so directly like that…"

Scott found his display of vulnerability amusing but didn't really press hard, instead raising his hands in an attempt to defuse the tension. "Now, I'm not trying to strongarm you into just paying out the nose, Ash. That would be madness, not to mention a financial dead end anyway."

"Oh, sure, I gotcha," Ash replied, desperately trying to not give the impression that he was outraged at the audacity or the like. "I just wonder how anyone could possibly get the money to pay for all of that. I mean, it wasn't just the house—I bet you had a lot of expensive stuff inside, too."

"That and a number of keepsakes I could never put a price tag on," Scott said with a sad sigh. "But hey, I'm not greedy or vindictive or anything like that. Again, I completely understand why you would try to off me, and if I'll be honest, it's not like I was blameless, either. We were all manipulated by Giovanni."

"Well, still…" Ash said, still hidden behind his cap's visor. "I really do want to make up for what I did to you. I'm just not sure how I can do that. Being a Pokémon Trainer isn't the best-paying job out there, you know."

"Oh, believe you me, I know. I wouldn't have needed to ask for a loan from Team Rocket if the battle payouts and sponsorships were that lucrative."

"So what can I do? If I can't pay you back with money, what?"

Scott paused for a moment. It was hard to get a good reading of him with his eyes behind his sunglasses, but it was clear that he was having difficulty coming up with a particularly good solution himself. May watched with bated breath as the two struggled to put their heads together, and she even took a moment to try to come up with an idea of her own—although it didn't take long for her to realize that she didn't know much about making money, instead having had to rely on others for that sort of thing in the past.

After a few minutes of thinking, however, Scott finally broke the silence with a finger snap. "All right, so the biggest reason why this is so difficult is because I don't want to get in the way of your Pokémon journey. You were actually planning on competing in another Pokémon League for this upcoming year, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"So, the way I see it, that leaves us with two options: One, you could continue with your previous plans and compete in another Pokémon League—Sinnoh's is looking quite promising this year, by the way—and use your winnings to pay towards the reparations and put in a good word to get more sponsors to check out the Battle Frontier; or two, you could stay here in Kanto and work for me as a Frontier Brain until you've earned enough to help pay off the debt."

Ash hesitated to say anything. He only got as far as opening his mouth, but no sound came out of it. He looked around the room, first at May and then at Pikachu, to see if they would give him some sort of guidance, but he stumbled across his words when it was clear no one would come to his aid.

From May's perspective, neither option seemed ideal. Having to stay in Kanto for who-knows-how-long was the obvious drawback for the latter option, but having no access to winnings for a year sounded completely unsustainable. It was hard enough for her to get by competing only in Contests, and that was with Brock propping the whole group up on top of whatever meager winnings they could get. Ash wasn't exactly rolling in bills when he competed.

With that mode of revenue gone, though, how could they live?

A couple minutes passed without Ash being able to say much. Only when he closed his eyes and meditated for a bit did he finally resolve to answer, "Please give me a while to think about this. I want to make sure I make the best decision I can."

Scott didn't react too negatively to Ash's request, by the looks of it. Instead of pressing for an answer, he smiled and said, "Sure, there's no need to rush. I'll be here on One Island for another few days before I need to deal with legal matters on the mainland, so I'll just hang tight until then."

Ash exhaled in slight relief before thanking him. Scott then simply reciprocated with an "anytime" before quickly traipsing back to the lobby to take a phone call—a somewhat heated one regarding Battle Frontier liabilities, by the sounds of it. Despite his well-collected attitude, it was clear that whatever he and his interlocutor had to discuss weighed heavily on him, and the constant pacing back and forth gave May so much anxiety that she had to look away.

In doing so, she caught Ash staring into space again. No doubt the hard choice he had to make gave him a lot to think about, as well. Moreover, considering how scared it was making her feel, she could only imagine how terrified he was, especially considering he had to be the one to pull the lever himself.

She desperately wanted to help, but she despised the only advice she could come up with, which ended up being no different than the two choices he was presented with already. It wasn't long until she acknowledged that her input would be useless, so instead of racking her brain further, she gently tugged his shirt to get his attention.

"Hey," she said, "if you're hungry, I can grab you some breakfast., if you want."

Practically on cue, Ash's stomach responded with a loud growl that almost drew eyes from a few nearby Trainers who were already dining. His face flushing red, he laughed in an attempt to mask the sound. "Yeah, that sounds good to me."

Without a word, May went over to the buffet section and grabbed a couple of plates, piling on as much food as she felt they could eat—at least, as much as she felt they could get away with without needing to pay. After a couple minutes of scooping rice, noodles, and an assortment of meats, she returned with what could only be described as a mini feast for two.

The couple dug in as soon as both were seated, and for the next half hour or so, they ate in relative silence, the weight of uncertainty in their future complemented sourly with the heaviness of the meal they forcefully fed to themselves.

* * *

Eventually, a couple more days passed, and May found herself once again the lone occupant of her bed. After rubbing her eyes clean, she curled to her side and yawned, lamenting the insomnia she had been cursed with ever since Ash's discussion with Scott. She sniffed and caught the subtle waft of Ash's scent that was fading by the minute before clutching the wrinkled comforter and smothering it in her face.

She and Ash didn't speak much after dinner a couple days prior, nor did she even see him much beyond breakfast and dinner. She got the impression that maybe he was still under a lot of pressure to come up with a decision and simply wanted some alone time to figure it out. Or maybe he had already come to a decision and was avoiding her because he was afraid she wouldn't like the answer?

Regardless of his intentions, the end result was the same: She was afflicted with a sense of restlessness that even constant pacing couldn't remedy.

She lost track of whether it was fifteen minutes or forty before she groggily climbed out of bed and stalked her way to the bathroom to shower and brush, taking care to not slip on the wet floor—evidence that Ash had already done his business while she slept. She turned the valve and waited for the water to warm up before slipping in, all the while running through the same thoughts that had kept her up at night.

 _Did he make his decision already?_ she thought as she lathered soap in her hands. _Is he really avoiding me? Or does he really just need alone time?_

She yelped when a rogue stream of shampoo suds dripped into her eyes and clutched her face as they burned.

 _For that matter, why am I so scared? Will I have to give up my dream of being a Coordinator? What if he insists I pursue my dream while he stays in Kanto? Will we even be able to stay together regardless of what he chooses?_

Her feet required her attention next, and then her arms.

 _It almost feels like no matter what I do, he'll always be out of my reach. It's almost like we'll never have enough time._

Satisfied enough with her hot soak, she shut off the valve and stood in the cell for a moment to let the excess water run off before stepping out and fetching her towel and clothes.

 _Never have enough time…_

After a few minutes of drying her hair and getting dressed, she was finally ready to greet the day once more, but she hesitated after eyeing the door handle, as though she was afraid it was hooked up to an electrical outlet. She couldn't be sure, but it was like she was simply afraid to do anything in the hopes that doing nothing would let her keep things just the way they were.

 _Maybe if I just stay in my room forever, I'll never have to say goodbye…_

She knew, however, that was simply wishful thinking based on nothing but cowardice, regardless of how often she said it to herself. She broke through what felt to be a strong river current pushing her back and forced her hand to reach the knob and turn it.

As soon as she opened the door a crack, though, a glimpse of folded white paper caught the corner of her eye, resting between the doorframe and her shoe. Curious, she picked it up and unfolded it and, sure enough, the chicken scratch matched Ash's handwriting.

 _May,_ it began, _meet me on Treasure Beach tonight at 7:00. I need to tell you something._

The note had no closing signature—not that it needed one—but in its place was a crudely-drawn heart filled in with scrapes from a blue ballpoint pen that was clearly almost out of ink. She sighed and pocketed the note, appreciating the effort at romance but none too happy with the ambiguous way it ended.

Soon, like clockwork, her stomach called out for breakfast as she walked down the hall towards the dining area. At least she had something pleasant she could look forward to.

Brock, Cyndi, Greta, and Anabel were already seated at a table watching a particularly-tenacious Pikachu wrestling with a stubborn bottle of ketchup. After gathering her feast for the morning, she sat herself down next to Brock and across from Greta and took a moment of her own to see who was winning the fight (it was the ketchup bottle, of course, but it was a close match).

Noticing the new guest, Brock glanced over at the downtrodden girl. "Hey, May, are you all right? Your eyes are red."

May wasn't surprised, although she couldn't tell whether it was more due to her crying earlier or the shampoo. Embarrassed, she simply went with the latter explanation and hoped no one else would press her. They didn't, thank goodness.

"Have you seen Ash around his morning?" Anabel asked as she bit into some toast.

Greta, for some reason, grew flustered upon hearing her. "Oish, Annie! Are you still worried about him?"

"No, no! Not in that way! I just seriously haven't seen him in a long time, and it's even weirder to see that he's not here with you."

"Nope, I haven't," May replied bluntly. "Only got this note from him," which she held out, only to have it immediately swiped away by Greta.

She scanned it over for a couple seconds before dismissively handing it back to May in a huff. "Yikes, talk about opaque. Only giving you a time and location without any indication at all of what he wants to talk about? What's he thinking?"

"I mean, he's probably thinking about a lot," Brock said sagely. "He told me about his predicament with Scott, and I'll admit, it sounds like a pretty serious dilemma."

"Man, why can't Scott just forgive Ash, anyway?" Cyndi whined. "I wanted to watch him compete in the Sinnoh League…" Pikachu briefly stopped attacking the bottle to voice agreement before going ham at it again.

Greta sighed as the worry-filled atmosphere dragged her down. "It's not so simple, kid. Adults need to accept the consequences of the choices they make, and I know he realizes this."

"Well, yeah, but still… Could this really mean no more competing if he can't afford to travel?"

"That's possible," Anabel sadly said with a nod. "And he may find life as a Frontier Brain to be too stagnant and monotonous without new sights and Pokémon to see. So, it's anyone's wager at this point."

"He must've picked something, though," Greta said between bites of her breakfast. "After all, Scott told us today's our last day before we're needed back in Kanto."

"Agh, _doi_!" Anabel exclaimed, pounding her forehead. "I completely forgot about that! And just like that, my morning is in the pits…"

Brock chuckled. "What timing. I'm needed back in Pewter City this week, too, so today will also be my last day."

Cyndi pounded the table in shock, prompting the silverware to jingle like wind chimes. "No way! We're leaving!?"

"Yep, I'm afraid so. Gym Leader duties and all that. Also, I can't in good conscience leave you unattended. Raine must be worried sick about you by now."

"Yeah, you're telling me; if I miss just _one_ night without calling her, she becomes a nervous wreck. And that's without mentioning all the life-and-death stuff that's happened!"

A lump had formed in May's throat from Brock's news, and so the food in her mouth fought back against it as she loudly swallowed, alerting the rest of them that she had been quiet for the past few minutes. "What does this mean for me and Ash?"

Brock rubbed his chin for a moment in thought before responding. "It's up to you two, I guess. I can't force you to come with us, after all. Depending on what he chooses, it may be some time before we see each other again."

"Oh…" was all May could say before getting back to her food in silence. Familiar words filled her head again as she eyed her half-eaten eggs. _Never have enough time…_

She had a bit of a start, however, when she felt a strong clap on her shoulder. "Don't worry, May," Brock said with conviction. "No matter what happens, we'll get through this. Everything will be fine."

May wasn't too sure, especially with such scarce details, but even so, she greatly appreciated the shift in tone and the boost in confidence. _Yeah, what's the worst that could happen?_ she thought with the same sort of conviction that Brock showed her. _I'll trust Ash. What more can I do?_

May's spirits considerably raised, she finished her meal with gusto, which elicited a pleasantly surprised look from the others, who had just been considerably more morose regarding their itinerary. Despite this, they had another decent meal and pleasant conversation about this and that, and eventually, they were able to completely distract themselves from the troubles that still ailed them.

And so, with her stomach full and her mind less burdened on her problems, May turned her focus less to what Ash was planning on telling her and more on her newfound desire to catch up on sleep to prepare for her encounter later that evening.

* * *

The sun had long set by the time May's boat reached the shore of Treasure Beach. Her short nap nearly turned into hibernation, but thanks to her diligence to actually set an alarm, she was able to freshen up a bit, go out to rent some sort of motor boat after deciding she didn't want to fly Ho-Oh in near darkness, and then embark a bit before the clock struck 6:30.

It took around twenty minutes or so to reach the other end of the bay, and with nothing but the light from a waning half moon to guide her, she grew fearful that maybe she had turned at an off angle midway and was headed straight out to sea. Fortunately, she hadn't, and before long, the white sand from the shore glistened brightly enough to beckon her closer without any cause for worry.

Looking even closer, though, she caught a dim outline of a large black pyramid—the Battle Pyramid, by the looks of it—with its apex flattened. Was Brandon freed after all? Perhaps maybe that wasn't Ash's handwriting but his all along?

She clapped her face to beat out the paranoia that had begun to make her jumpier than a caffeine IV drip. No, she knew that it had to be Ash who led her here, and everything was going to be all right.

...Right?

She nearly tripped as she jumped out of the boat and set the anchor, fortunately catching herself in time before belly flopping right into the shallows. More care and attention went into her balance as she waded through ankle-deep water and finally reached dry land. She looked ahead and saw that the entrance to the Battle Pyramid was already open—poorly lit but open, nonetheless—and walked over somewhat cautiously.

The colossus of a facility dwarfed the girl as she approached, and she was almost frozen in place from the grandeur of its sheer size. However, she quickly recommitted her focus ahead and walked through the entrance and into the dimly-lit corridor. Still no sign of Ash…

She wasn't sure if she was supposed to wait for him or if she was supposed to find him. Even though it _was_ only a few minutes, granted, she grew impatient waiting there and thought, _All right, I'll find you, then. What better way to do so than to go up?_

She soon came to realize that it wasn't at all that straightforward to figure out where she had to go to even go up. Like the Battle Fortress, the layout was consistent and symmetrical enough, but each hall only led her deeper in instead of further up. There were no stairs, at least not from what she could see, and her memory of the last time she was there was so useless in the dark that she couldn't come to rely on it for navigation.

So, she thought the best solution would be to brute force it by simply riding the right wall until she found something promising.

 _Ugh. Why didn't I fly, again?  
_

Her strategy did work, in all honesty, but it must've taken up all the spare time she had, and then some. Maybe it was 7:15 by then? Ash had to have been getting worried… At least he wouldn't have to wait for long, since she did find an elevator—it just turns out it was in the very center, which made enough sense. From then, it was just smooth sailing to the top.

After a couple more minutes, and dozens of floors later, there was finally a loud _ding_ indicating the final floor was reached. The double elevator doors opened, and through them, May found Ash leaning forward against the guard railing, probably simply appreciating the sight. Slowly, quietly, she approached before she, too, was at the railing and could see the wondrous sight below for herself.

Across the bay was a collection of various lights from One Island, twinkling in the distance and flickering on as more and more people retired to their rooms for the evening. The streets illuminated various colors from the electronic billboards and the streetlights overhead, sharply contrasted with the matte lighting from the alleys and the surrounding water, giving it the impression of an imitation of the cosmos.

Looking to her left made the contrast that much starker, as the natural lighting from the moon and stars filtered from above and bounced off the gentle waves licking the shoreline below. It was as though there were two skies, and she only had to glance one way or another if she wanted to taste any one flavor anew.

Eventually, May turned to her right to face the boy beside her. Unlike the state of him from about a week ago, his clothes looked to be patched up and ready for more battles; he looked clean; he _smelled_ clean; and the look on his face was not one of boundless rage, but one of warmth.

"Beautiful night, huh?" he asked, still keeping his gaze downward.

"Yeah," May replied softly. "It sure is."

The two returned to silence for a moment to appreciate that very night just a little bit more. There was no awkwardness between them. The night air, humid yet not too warm, only gave May more of a listless desire to continue watching the scene before her like a goddess from on high. She knew it couldn't last forever, but it was something she could at least make last for a moment longer.

"You know," Ash said, breaking the silence, "it's pretty crazy to think of everything that had to happen to get us to this point. Don't you think?"

May giggled in agreement. "If you think about it, it's almost like the universe was going to go elsewhere with our lives. I mean, I started out being afraid around Pokémon, but I got through my fear and became a Coordinator. And I have to admit I started out interested in you, but if you hadn't made your feelings clear to me, it's possible we would have parted ways after the Battle Frontier and never even had this wild vacation in the Sevii Islands. And none of that may have happened if weren't for Pikachu destroying my bike."

Ash laughed when the memory returned to him. "Yep, but it still did. Everything that happened still got us just a little bit closer to where we are now. It's scary to think about what would have happened if even one of those things didn't happen, but then I remember the present day."

"And just think! You completed your Battle Frontier challenge!"

"Heh, yeah. But really, I'd never have gotten that far if it weren't for you."

May was taken aback, partially by the strange sense of familiarity she got from the subject. _Déjà vu_ , perhaps? Something told her he was going to say something like that, but she figured she'd humor him a bit regardless. "Oh, really? Why do you say that?"

"Well, you were there for me during my worst moments. Back when I was possessed; when I almost drowned in the sea temple; when I was down on my luck in battles; when I was hurt from Swellow saving us; and, well, when I was possessed _again_ … You were always there to pick me back up somehow or even save me outright. If you weren't there, I'm not sure if I'd even still be here."

"Just returning the favor," May said, flushing red in embarrassment. "You've done your fair share of helping me. I've lost count of how many times you were supportive of me when things didn't go my way in Contests, you know? I'd say we complement each other pretty well!"

Then it was Ash's turn to blush to such a hue of red that it was even noticeable to May in the dim lighting. He fidgeted his hands and fumbled his way into his right pocket and almost looked like he was going to drop whatever it was he was pulling out, but fortunately, he caught it before it was flung into a shadowy grave down below.

"Y-yeah," he stuttered. "So well, in fact, that I think you should have this." He handed something in front of her, and what it was made her eyes grow to the size of saucers. It was a ruby, roughly the size of his thumb, encased in a silver frame and bound to a silvery chain with links so small and numerous they melted in his hand.

May's heart skipped a beat, and she struggled to get words out. "A-Ash… Are you asking me to…!?"

"...Asking you to do what?"

"Eh? Um...marry you…?"

Ash recoiled, almost dropping the pendant. "What!? Nonononono! We're way too young for that!"

Then relief washed over her, her heart slowing down to a more manageable tempo. "Oh, good…" she said with a loud exhale. "You had me going for a minute there."

"Haha, I'm sorry. I just found this ruby when we were on Mt. Ember and thought that you'd like it if I took it to a jeweler on the island. Do you like it?"

May carefully picked up the pendant and ran her fingers through the silky chain, appreciating the gem's luster and delicate cuts before looping it around and letting it adorn her neck. "Ash, this is _beautiful_. I had no idea you had such a mind for gifts!"

He scratched the back of his head, not sure how to acknowledge that compliment beyond an embarrassed laugh. May took a couple seconds to pose and show off her new jewelry, and the sight of her being so happy almost brought a tear to his eye. "It looks very good on you."

"Why, thank you," she responded with a graceful bow before remembering something she almost forgot after being in the moment. "You know, it's funny…" She zipped open her pack and rummaged through her things—Poké Balls, her ribbon case, the note from earlier—to find what it was that she herself had tasked with giving him. "Great minds think alike!"

Ash's mouth dropped at the sight of her gift—a silver bracelet decorated with bits of seashells, with a cut sapphire fitted in the middle. His clumsy finger twitches almost knocked it out of her hands, prompting an eye roll from May, but eventually, he, too, was able to fit his hand through it and wear it on his wrist.

"This also looks awesome!" he exclaimed, still eyeing the gem with a profound satisfaction. "Where did you find it?"

"Well, when the rest of us were at the Dotted Hole to keep the Brains from getting the Sapphire, I just found it lying around. I didn't know what I would do with it until later, but when I had enough time to run errands without you there to notice, I took my opportunity to get you something surprising."

"Wow… Great minds really do think alike…"

May then slowly inched closer to him—half slyly, half shyly—with a smile on her face. "All of this is a very sweet. Thank you, Ash."

And then it was Ash's turn for _déjà vu_. He knew what he had to do—or, rather, what she was egging him on to do—for it was weeks ago when he had concocted that very same scenario whole cloth in his head, silly as he thought it was at first. Then again, he knew what he was going for since the beginning, having clearly borrowed the Battle Pyramid just for that view and scheduled it just for that time in a place just right to sightsee.

Slowly and gently, he grabbed her right hand with his bracelet-ed left. He brought it up closer to him, with his heart pounding all the while with such ferocity he was sure she would hear it over the sound of the breeze. Whether she did or not in reality was anyone's guess, but she didn't comment on it anyway and let him continue to pull it further. And further.

And finally, he brought the back of her hand to his mouth and gently pressed his lips against it.

The quick, subtle sensation tickled her, eliciting an involuntary giggle. "You are quite the gentleman, Mr. Ketchum," she said with a small curtsey. Before he could really process what she was doing, she inched closer and then swiftly stole a kiss on his cheek.

Shocked, Ash's skin and bone petrified for a mere couple seconds before thawing. May giggled again at his penchant for becoming flustered so easily, although deep down, she wholeheartedly appreciated his expression of respect for her boundaries—especially after considering how severely they were violated before.

"It's all right, Ash," she said softly, inching even closer. "Everything is okay."

To which he then smiled and closed his eyes. That was her cue.

She closed the distance further before her lips and his were just centimeters apart. She froze for a second to observe his reaction and saw to her delight that his eyes were still closed and his smile had already changed to a pucker.

And then, the moment their lips finally touched, all reality around them dissolved to nothing, and their feet were no longer on the ground. They were flying through the sky—or perhaps swimming in the inky depths of the moonlit bay?—and their path curved through the clouds or the shallows as their kiss grew deeper.

It wasn't hot in the sky, nor cold in the water, in and of itself; bumps on her skin formed only from the further intensifying heat of the moment, but she shivered from neither cold nor fear, nor the wind or water rushing past her ears. There was nothing _to_ fear any longer.

Their kiss continued for a good couple of minutes before it broke, and with it, the fantasy that they found themselves submerged in. Their feet were back onto the Battle Pyramid; and the lighting from both the stars, moon, and the world below faded back into existence. May's goosebumps from the moment were the only evidence that remained of her brief foray into a world beyond.

Both were disappointed the kiss went as soon as it came, but neither of them said a word and, in fact, were quite happy enough to embrace to stave off the cool wind that had returned when they did. Ash's arms wrapped around her from behind, and from there, they went back to their front-row seats of appreciating the townsfolk returning to their homes and preparing for a new day.

"I think I made my decision," Ash said after a few minutes of just watching the view.

Just like that, May's anxiety from the days before returned. "Y-You did?" It took all her willpower to hide the fact that she wanted to shiver, but she didn't want to risk scaring him, either.

"Yeah. It was part of the reason why I brought you here, actually."

She figured there had to be an additional catch to such a romantic night. Gulping and her heart beginning to pound like a drum in her chest, she followed up with, "And what did you decide?"

"I've decided," he said before gulping for himself, "to take up Scott's offer of becoming a Frontier Brain."

May froze in place, afraid that moving an inch to the left or right would cause Ash to let go and run away. She was afraid of hearing that particular decision, and more than that, she was surprised. "Oh, I see. I would have thought you'd want to continue your journey to another region and compete in another league."

"And I do want to do that. There are so many new Pokémon that I haven't seen, and I know that I have a bunch left to learn as a Trainer before I can be the best. Still, no matter how much I wish for it, it doesn't change that a Frontier Brain does get paid more than if I were to just compete. So, I figured that I'll be able to get back to doing what I love most more quickly if I went with this."

May was silent, but not out of disappointment, really. His logic made sense to her, and she liked the idea of him being able to travel again, and with a guilt-free conscience and a debt-free wallet on top of that.

"Is that okay, May? Honestly, I'm scared you might not like it, since I know how important it is for you to compete in Contests."

"I mean, yeah, that's true," May replied. "If I don't do that, then competing in the Grand Festival is only a pipe dream at that point…"

Ash's teeth started chattering, which surprised her so much she began to laugh.

"But you know, I think I could get away with sticking around in Kanto. Who's to say I can't practice with you and fly out to Contests? I can still get ribbons that way and then compete in the Grand Festival just the same, right?"

"I mean, if we can get you transportation, okay… I'm not entirely sure how it'll work, though. Maybe if Scott lets me borrow the Battle Pyramid?"

She turned in his arms and smiled at him. "Oh, you worry too much!"—rich, of course, coming from someone who had just been worried to death about his decision herself, although she was glad Ash didn't have the courage to call her out on it. "We'll make it work. I'm scared, too, but where there's a will, there's a way, right? I refuse to give up on my dream, but I love you too much to just leave in pursuit of that. So we'll make it work. I just know it."

Ash mouthed her name in surprise, but no sound came out. He clearly hadn't realized just how much his outward resolve had a tendency to rub off on other people, especially her. In that moment, however, perhaps he finally did have an idea just how much alike they both had become just being around each other so much.

It was rather intoxicating, he had to admit.

Ash couldn't help but laugh himself and just vent the rest of his anxiety out of his system. "Okay, I believe you," he said, embracing the wave of relief that took its place. "You're right. I know we can make this work. I love you too much not to myself."

"Then let's make it work, boyfriend," she playfully replied with a wink before burying her face into his chest. Ash simply tightened his embrace around her and didn't say anything. A part of him took time to run over a few additional scenarios regarding how they were, exactly, going to make the whole affair work, but the second part was screaming at the first part to slow down and just enjoy the moment for now.

May, on the other hand, was entirely _in_ the moment. Her shivers completely ceased, and in their place was a feeling of warmth and comfort not unlike the kind one would get from a blanket in front of a campfire. There were no worries left for her to ponder, as in her mind, they were all resolved—or, if not resolved, she had the utmost confidence they would be.

It was evident to both of them that the future itself was the final frontier left unexplored, but May knew then that, together with Ash, it need not terrify her.

* * *

 **And that's all she wrote!**

 **It was about a year in the making, and eleven years overdue, but we've finally reached the end of the saga. I can finally say, for myself, that I have closure to this story. I hope you do, too, kind readers!**

 **To think, so much has happened since Chapter 36 was released all those years ago. We've gone through two console generations, four** ** _Pokémon_** **generations, two** ** _Super Smash Bros._** **iterations, fandoms rising and falling, the whole Internet evolving... It's dizzying how much a decade brings, and it's almost scary to imagine how much another decade will bring.**

 **I'm not sure if you ever wanted to read this or ever will come across the time to reading it, PikamasterADV, but if you ever do, know that your legacy in the fandom still stands the test of time. And I hope that my vision of what _Final Frontier_ has become hasn't diverged too much from yours. I also hope this proves that it's never too late to finish something.**

 **So, what will happen next? Well, that's tricky. If the itch to write more strikes me, and if enough people are interested, I may think about writing an epilogue to this. That said, there is still other stuff I should probably get back to, so for now, everyone can consider this story finished. It's what I wanted for so long.  
**

 **But who knows? I said in the past that I didn't think I'd write another Advanceshipping fan fiction, but then I went around and finished someone else's. It is, after all, dizzying how much a decade brings. Let's embrace the dizziness, shall we?**

 **Until then, I might as well end this how I think PikamasterADV would: Get** ** _Pokémon_** **!**


End file.
